


The Brass Chronicles: Shattered

by 123leyang321



Series: The Brass Chronicles (Trilogy) [1]
Category: Medabots
Genre: Action, Backstory, Best Friends, Bonding, Canon Backstory, Canon Continuation, Character Death, Drama, Fights, Friendship, Gen, Gore, Graphic Description, Implied Sexual Content, Kidnapping, Love, Murder, Near Death Experiences, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Rescue, Revenge, Robots, Ship Tease, Spiritual, Suspense, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-18
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-18 00:52:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13670868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/123leyang321/pseuds/123leyang321
Summary: Brass meets a man that wants to get revenge on Metabee for something horrible he did to him several years ago. Haunted by the ghosts of the past, will Metabee be able to sort out these conflicts in order to save her?





	1. Prologue

The soft noise of raindrops echoed in the dark basement. There were a few high metallic shelves and some wooden boxes covered by leather mantles occupying most of the already small place, leaving not much room to feel comfortable there. The place was very dirty, webs lay on the walls and some water was pouring from the roof. A trembling silhouette could be seen in one of the corners: a medabot.

The medabot seemed to be in very bad shape, the shadow covered most of its body, therefore, it could barely be noticed. What could be seen from this poor mechanical being was its damaged torso and head: the white face covered with scratches, the pink eyes have lost their brightness, the blue head not better than the face, the rose bow in the back of the head severely damaged and part of it was missing, the torso even worse than the head part. Judging by what's been just seen, there's no telling on how bad the rest of the body might be.

Brass just sat there and wasn't moving. She was worried. ' _How... How could this have happened? What did I do?_ ' She thought and regretted her decisions from that day. She noticed she was almost "fainting". ' _Erika, Metabee, Ikki... Please... Be careful._ ' She longed and prayed. All she could do was wait... Wait for them to come for her. But that probably wasn't going to be a simple rescue mission...

Then something came to her mind, a memory: _she was hanging for her "life" at the top of a very high building with Belzelga holding her leg, making both way too heavy for her only functioning arm to hold on; then, when her grip gave up, Metabee's hand grabbed hers, saving her from a horrible fall._ Even though both his legs were totally damaged, Metabee managed to reach her just in time. She knew he'd try to beat all the odds. She just hoped it wouldn't lead them to danger as well.

Suddenly, a very bright light filled the room as a door opened, snapping Brass out of her dream. She couldn't see it at all, but she could hear everything, and somehow her head wasn't damaged enough to make her scan function cease completely, so she was still able to track movement around her, though with not much accuracy. Cautious steps could be heard, as if whoever was there either has never been there before or was a bit unsure of how to get inside and explore the place. Probably the first possibility. By what her scanning could tell, it was another medabot and it seemed to be perfectly fine. ' _Could that be...?_ '

"Brass! Can you hear me?" - a voice shouted but in a low enough tone, just a bit louder than a whisper. The voice startled her and warmed her medal: he did it! He had managed to get to her. ' _Metabee..._ ' She tried to stand up, but in vain, she was too weak. Instead, she crawled to the side a little and poked her head slightly out of her hiding corner.

"I'm... Over here." - she said, her voice was completely modified, showing she didn't have much juice left. Steps came closer at a very quick pace. Brass noticed Metabee was beside her, and by the noise from his movement, she could deduce he was kneeling to be able to look at her. She curled a little to hide her body in the shadows and allowed some of her power to be used to partially fix her bow in an attempt to make her scanning system better since all she could track was very confusing and fixing her eyes was out of question at the moment.

"How bad is it?" - Metabee asked with concern on his voice, Brass couldn't see it, but he was frowning. She remained silent for a second and just moved her head so she would be "looking at" the floor.

"I'm not sure." - she said, her voice sounded more and more as if she were going out of juice. Her head started to shake a bit due to the lack of power, her torso could barely keep itself up and was almost giving up, but then she regained some control of it. - "Sorry."

The male medabot just shook his head frowning even more, as if he were saying she didn't have to be sorry for anything.

"It's okay, I'll get you out of here." - he replied then reached out his right arm for her, but she moved away from his grip's range. She noticed him leaning his body forward trying to grasp her right arm she was hiding. His torso reflected the light coming from the door, sending it in front of him. He used his left hand to shield his eyes from the hard light's reflection coming from his chest, clearing his vision and then he looked at Brass again, finally being able to see her properly: he froze, and she turned around a bit, making her body face the wall and hide her injuries.

"Don't worry about me. I-I can get fixed." - she said, but he remained frozen - "There's not much time, the power from my medal is almost gone." - she warned, then reached her left arm out and rested her hand on his right arm - "Metabee... If I don't make it..." - her head pointed downwards - "Just... Just keep going and get out. Don't stay here... This person that brought me to this place... He means business."

Metabee suddenly snapped out of his frozen state and grabbed her hand.

"No way! I'm not leaving you here." - he said in a serious tone, his stare was deep, but she couldn't see it - "I promise I'll take you to Erika. She, Ikki and the guys are coming."

Those words gave Brass some hope: nothing could deny how brave the KBT-type medabot was. They had to try to escape quickly. Little did they know everything was just going to get worse.


	2. Unfortunate Encounter

The sun was bright, the day was warm, the sky was very clean, a vivid blue. Ikki was walking in the street, making his way to the bridge that crosses the river where he found Metabee's medal in when he heard someone calling for him.

"Ikki!" - Erika shouted while running towards him.

"Oh, hey, Erika." - he said turning around, then she showed an invitation to her house and he asked - "What's this?"

"Ikki! How could you have forgotten?!" - she hit his head with the small piece of paper - "Tomorrow is an important day to me and Brass, it'll be 4 years since we've become friends!" - she finished while the boy rubbed his head where she had hit him.

"Ouch... Sorry! No need to hit me like that!" - he took the invitation from her, stared at it and smiled - "I gotta make a party too next time the date of the day Metabee and I met comes. What are you up to?"

"I want to give her a very special gift and I need you to help me find something nice!"

Ikki put a hand on his chin while he started to think about a cool gift for Brass.

"Erika! Ikki!" - someone said. They both looked to the side to find Ginkai, Zuru and their medabots: Arc-Dash, Tyrelbeetle, and Roks.

"Hi, guys." - Ikki greeted, and Erika waved.

"So, Erika, did you find anything for Brass?" - Arc-Dash asked curiously.

"Nothing yet." - she replied with a sigh.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find something until the end of the day." - Tyrelbeetle assured while Roks nodded agreeing.

"Ikki, where's Metabee?" - Zuru asked, after noticing the medabot wasn't there.

"Oh, my mom told him to take Salty to a quick ride and take care of the garden while she went to the market, and as for me, I have to go to the groceries store. But I'll meet him at Ms. Nae's place later today."

"So you're busy to help me..." - Erika muttered.

"I can go with you up to Henry's store, he might have some cool stuff there or might even give us an advice, it's on the way of the groceries store anyways."

"Yeah, we'll go there with you guys and we'll look at the other stores too, this way you'll have a better chance of finding something nice." - Ginkai said.

Erika looked at him slightly in awe. From a bully to a guy that comes up with smart ideas... Maybe that should be the theme of her next scoop! But that'd have to wait, she had more important things to do right now. Nonetheless, she excitedly smiled at her friends. She'd have Brass' gift in no time!

* * *

 

Metabee was walking with Salty in the street, he was almost getting home when suddenly the dog started running fast and pulled the medabot brutally.

"Hey, what's wrong, Salty?" - Metabee shouted, then screamed as he fell face first on the ground and was dragged up to Ikki's house's gates by the animal - "Oww... This is gonna leave a mark."

A medabot that was standing by the gate was what had caught the dog's attention. He jumped on it happily, knocking it back a little and making it hit its back on the wall and step on a rake that was laying on the ground next to it. Above the wall was a small shelf with two plant pots. One was sent flying when the rake's handle hit the shelf and the other just fell. The one that had fallen landed right on the medabot's hands and the other one was going to hit the ground. Metabee that had just gotten up threw himself to the ground in an attempt to save the pot, and the other medabot did the same while still holding a pot. Fortunately, both managed to grab the pot right before it hit the ground.

"Phew... That was close." - Metabee said while the other medabot let out a quick sigh of relief, then he looked at it - "Oh, hi there, Brass. Er... Sorry about Salty." - he greeted and glared at the dog that had almost caused a disaster. Salty just tilted his head to the side as if he were pretending he didn't have a clue of what had just happened.

"Hello, Metabee. It's okay." - she greeted back while both got up, each one holding one plant pot - "Do you need any help with the flowers?" - she said after noticing Metabee was looking towards the garden.

"That'd be great. I do have to take care of the garden today."

Brass noticed the shelf was way too high for them to reach, so she looked at Metabee and both had an idea: he handed her the other pot and brought his hands together in a way she could support her foot there and place the pots back in the shelf. After that, the Sailor-Multi went inside to get water while the KBT-type medabot used some tools to work on the garden.

In less than a minute, the female medabot was outside holding a full watering can. She noticed Metabee was having a hard time trying to place the plants correctly on the soil.

"Hm... May I...?" - she nodded towards the plant while putting the watering can on the ground. He shrugged a bit embarrassed because of his clumsiness and handed her the tools. Brass placed the plant perfectly, following the same pattern as the rest of the plants from the garden and then poured some water on it.

"Wow, you do know how it's done." - Metabee complimented.

"I did learn a lot when I was helping Erika with her secret garden... Well... Not so secret anymore." - she sweatdropped slightly remembering how Erika had acted when her friends found out about her little secret. At least they didn't tear the place apart like the girl had thought they would, instead they helped to always keep that place peaceful and pretty, so her medafighter finally decided it was okay to let her friends go there.

The male medabot observed while Brass placed another plant, so he could learn, though he got a little lost for some reason. Then she gestured for him to try and he managed to do it right. Soon they were finished.

"That took half the time it would if I had done it all alone." - he said while dusting off his hands - "Thanks, Brass." - he put his hands on his hips.

She nodded, then got up and dusted off her skirt. The Sailor-Multi placed her hands in front of it and stared at them. She had something to ask of Metabee, but she felt shy, she usually didn't ask for help, she was the one that helped the others. The yellow medabot noticed her gesture.

"Something wrong?" - he asked, his stare moving from her hands to her eyes. The question startled her a little, but she was glad, after all, he at least took the first step for her.

"No, no, nothing wrong." - she assured - "It's just... Tomorrow it'll be 4 years since I met Erika. We are going to make a party and you and Ikki were invited." - after she saw his eyes shining with happiness, as if he were congratulating them, she continued - "I-I've been looking for a special gift for her and... Well..."

"And you need ideas for the gift." - he finished her sentence - "Ha, no problem, give me a second." - he sprinted inside the house, then came back bringing with him a magazine that was open in a certain page and showed it to her - "Tadah!"

Brass sweat dropped and blushed a little.

"Ah... Are you sure... Metabee?" - she frowned. He was standing in a winning pose with his arms crossed, but after he heard her say that and saw her expression, his pose dropped.

"Huh?" - he walked beside her and poked his head above her shoulder to take a look at the magazine - "What do you mean by..." - he was sweat dropping and blushing now too, and his eyes widened, one of them also started twitching - "Gck! Gck! Gck!"

The pink-eyed medabot turned her head to look at him. At that, she sweatdropped a bit more, her eyes widened slightly and her head moved back a little since his face was way too close. He then looked at her, sweat dropping even more and also noticing the same she just did. All of a sudden, he took the magazine from her and ran back inside the house shouting:

"Sorry! Wrong magazine!"

Brass' face's look remained blank for a few seconds and she just blinked, but then giggled. In a few seconds, he got back with another magazine.

"Okay, this is the one!" - he said proudly and, at the same time, awkwardly while handing it to her. This time he wasn't going to mess up!

The female medabot looked at the magazine and her eyes sparkled. Metabee found himself drawn to them... That sparkle was familiar, though he couldn't point exactly why.

"Wow! This is just amazing!" - she said excitedly. The magazine had an advertising of a very advanced camera that had just been released.

"I know right." - he nodded confidently then stood beside her.

"But it's so expensive..."

"Don't worry, I got it covered."

"What?" - she frowned - "Metabee, you don't have to give me money. I..."

"Hey, hey. I never mentioned anything about giving you money, after all, that must be YOUR gift." - he placed his left hand on her left shoulder and then reached his right arm out to turn the page - "This is what I was talking about." - he pointed with his right hand to the second part of the advertising: it was a winner coupon that was part of a special sale the creators of that model were making, celebrating their success; 5 winners would be able to retrieve a camera for free at the store - "And you can have it, Brass."

"Really?" - her eyes sparkled even more, and even though the KBT-type didn't have a mouth, his eyes showed that he was grinning at hers. What was that so familiar about them?

"Sure! Since Erika had to break her camera to fix my targeting lens, I felt like she should get a new and better one, and when this advertising appeared, I knew I had to save it for a good occasion. And, well, what occasion would be better than this one right now?" - he shrugged slightly while nodding, and Brass became all excited.

"Thanks, Metabee!"

"No problem." - he scratched the back of his head and placed one hand on his hip. He got caught off guard when she gave him a quick bear hug: good thing she did that softly, though, otherwise she'd have broken his tinpet. He didn't expect that would make her so happy, but he was glad he helped.

Then they heard the sound of a car approaching and looked at it.

"Hello, Metabee, Brass." - a young woman driving a van greeted.

"Hi, Miss Nae." - the two medabots said in unison, though Metabee waved and Brass bowed, the first noticed the woman was alone and asked - "Where's Honey?"

"She is delivering a few parts for some customers here, while I'm taking some brand new parts to an old friend of yours that lives in another city."

"Old friend?" - Metabee tilted his head wondering who she was talking about.

"Yes." - she smiled, then got off the vehicle and opened the storage compartment to show them the new parts. They were... MAR-type medaparts! So that old friend was...

"Oceana! Are you going to visit her?!" - when she nodded, he begged her with puppy eyes - "Can I come too?" - it's been so long since he last saw her, he truly wanted to know how she was doing.

"Of course! What about you, Brass?" - she looked at the pink-eyed medabot that was staring at a magazine.

"Oh, I have to go to a store to retrieve Erika's gift before it gets late. By the way, you and Honey are invited to our friendship's anniversary party." - she replied.

"Thank you, Brass. But, hey, come here, I can give you a lift."

"I don't want to be a burden... I can go by myself, it's not that far..."

"C'mon, Brass!" - Metabee's eyes frowned slightly, then he took the magazine from her and showed the address of the store to Miss Nae.

"Really, I don't want to cause trouble for you." - the Sailor-Multi sweat dropped slightly while the KBT-type pulled her to the van and made her sit beside him.

"Don't worry, it's on the way!" - the young woman said smiling.

"See?" - the yellow medabot said while patting Brass on the back as if he were telling her that she didn't have to be so shy when asking for help - "Now sit and enjoy the trip." - he leaned back in his seat and put his hands behind his head, resting it on them.

Brass didn't have an actual mouth, but her eyes reflected her smile.

* * *

 

Ikki and Erika got to Henry's store and found him cleaning the sidewalk with a broom.

"Hey, Henry!" - the boy shouted.

"Hi, Ikki, Erika." - he greeted, then tilted his head back a bit and sweat dropped when the girl pretty much rubbed a piece of paper in his face, though he didn't hold his smile, after all, she was inviting him to a party.

"You need to help me, Henry!" - the brown haired girl said - "Is there anything in your store I can give to Brass?"

"Well, I got some new models she might like." - he showed two medabots: one looked like a cheerleader, it had all the colors of the rainbow making it very cheerful; the other was mostly pink and looked like a girl wearing a lot of makeup. The kids sweatdropped.

"Uh... They're very... Girlish..." - Ikki said. It'd be weird seeing Brass walking around like one of those models, even Erika thought they were way too much and didn't match her medabot.

"I see. Eh, those new models created in an attempt to attract more girls to the robattles were not exactly a success." - Henry admitted sweat dropping - "I don't really think the rest I got in the store will interest Brass any better though." - he said and opened the door so the two could see what he had gotten.

There were several medaparts, but mostly for male tinpets, a few non-medabot-related toys, some general goods commonly found in many other stores...

"Hey, look at these!" - Ikki's eyes were quickly drawn to some action figures at the top of one of the shelves - "You had one of Metabee?! There's Rokusho too! And Warbandit and Arcbeetle and many others!"

"Yeah, they've been here for quite some time. Many people were excited after all that happened in the last WRC, saying the medabots were heroes. Kids wanted to have action figures and everything." - the young man told them.

"Well... I did notice I started having fans that wanted to be as good as I am." - Ikki said proudly and full of himself, remembering the day Tak told him he was a fan and challenged him to a robattle, and also the other little kids, Tak's friends - "Now that's something really cool!" - he picked one of the action figures up.

"Why would Brass want an action figure?" - Erika said in a slightly harsh tone.

"Why wouldn't she? You and she always come to Metabee and me for scoops and they always have at least something to do with medabots. Having action figures of her favorite medabots makes sense." - he said that while crossing his arms and resting his back on the wall. Erika looked at him in disbelief. What a silly idea! Brass isn't tomboyish to be playing with those toys!

"Ikki... Don't you have to go buy some groceries...?" - she reminded him. The boy got startled and looked at his medawatch.

"Ahhh! Mom must be arriving at home by now! See you guys later!" - he sprinted off the store as if he were running for dear life, but he bumped on one of the shelves on the way, making Henry throw himself in front of it to prevent it from falling - "Oh, and I hope you will find your gift soon, Erika! I'll keep looking when I'm done here too!" - his words could still be heard from the distance. Henry sweat dropped and the girl sighed. She had taken enough of his time, so she better let him go, after all, he didn't exactly give the best suggestion ever.

Not long after Ikki had left, Ginkai, Zuru and their three medabots appeared and took Erika to a few stores. They showed her makeup, some jewelry like earrings and necklaces, dolls and several girly objects. Erika could only sweatdrop. Okay, Brass was indeed a female medabot, but she was not a real girl! She couldn't wear most of that and, if nobody had noticed, the medabots are actually "teenagers" and "adults", even if some might act immature, as Metabee does sometimes, so she wouldn't play with dolls!

They all sighed helplessly, but they didn't give up. They had to find something. So they kept walking down the street looking for more stores.

* * *

 

The van was almost arriving at its first destination.

"Here's the coupon. I can't give you the whole magazine since it's actually Ikki's father's." - Metabee said, handing the piece of paper to Brass - "It's a really good one. From the Select Corps publishing house..." - he read - "I'm still wondering how do we have access to this stuff." - he shrugged. Miss Nae and the female medabot exchanged confused glances.

Soon they arrived and Brass got off the van right in front of the store she had to go to.

"Thank you, Miss Nae." - the medabot bowed politely. The young woman smiled, then turned to the other passenger inside the van.

"Metabee, do you want to stay with Brass?" - she asked. The KBT-type was caught off guard by that question.

"Uh... Well, I..." - he started, not sure about how to finish his sentence. At the same time he really wanted to see his former crush, he also was pondering if he should stay to make Brass company... And maybe even protect her from any kind of bully or danger.

"It's okay." - the Sailor-Multi interrupted his thoughts.

"Huh?" - he looked at her.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

The yellow medabot frowned very slightly as if he were asking "Are you sure?", and his gesture was replied with a nod from her. Miss Nae waved at Brass and the van went its way. The medabot waved back until the vehicle disappeared, then turned to the store's door and went inside.

The place wasn't way too big but was not small either. A couple of seconds after she entered the door, one person appeared.

"Hello, there. What can I do for you today?" - a middle-aged lady greeted. Brass walked up to the cashier and handed her the coupon.

"I've come to retrieve this camera as a gift for my friend."

"I see. Just one second, I'll go get it from our stock." - the lady left, but came back with empty hands a few minutes later - "I'm sorry, I forgot we had sold the last camera to our manager today in the morning because he needed it for his holidays trip." - she noticed the medabot stared at the ground - "But we are going to receive another one from our supplier today at night along with the rest of our goods."

"I won't be able to come here by then. I'll be organizing a party."

"You can order it too. Though it might take from 1 to 3 days to reach your house."

"Oh, it'll take too long. I needed it as soon as possible." - she sighed.

"Hm... Let's see what I can do then. Hang on." - the lady grabbed the phone and dialed someone - "Hi, I have a customer here with a winner coupon of our Special Moments promo. Can she go there to retrieve the camera?" - she smiled at Brass that looked at her with her eyes sparkling with hope - "Okay, thanks, I'm sending her right now." - she hung up.

"So..." - the medabot started, almost as if she didn't believe she got lucky.

"Yes, it's all yours. Our supplier isn't that far from here, you'll just have to turn left in the next corner and walk four blocks."

"Oh, thank you so much!" - Brass bowed politely and gratefully and left the store running as fast as she could.

"What a sweet little medabot." - the lady giggled to herself.

The Sailor-Multi ran really fast. She was so excited, she couldn't wait to bring Erika's gift safely to her home and she was so eager to give it to her! She was so lost in her little world that she didn't notice a man dressed in a long black blazer and wearing a black cap that staring deeply at a newspaper attached to a wall that had a picture of Ikki, Metabee, Ginkai, Zuru, Roks, Arc-Dash, Miss Nae and an ambulance carrying Kam accompanied by Eddy. It was talking about the incident at Extreme Tech with Gryphon. The man's eyes, though, didn't pay attention to the news' content, they were focused on Metabee.

He snatched the paper from the wall and held it firmly, then he put his hand inside his blazer and drew a folder from it. He cut the picture from the paper and placed it there, then stared at his collection of photos from newspapers. He had several pictures of Metabee with all his friends since when he was in his old model and wearing different medaparts as well. Then the man noticed something in some of the pictures: a female, blue, white and pink SLR-type medabot. He looked behind him and saw the Sailor-Multi passing by him, heading fast to somewhere. He decided to follow her but did so very discreetly.

Brass arrived at the supplier and entered. She watched as they folded her package in gift wrapping. They even took a picture of her before doing so, to test the camera and show her it was in perfect shape. She left happy and headed home.

"Excuse me." - a voice said. The medabot looked to the side to see who had said that. She saw a man dressed in black coming from the alley. He just walked toward her silently.

Meanwhile, a cloaked figure could be spotted standing on the roof of a building - a purple and silver, red-eyed medabot: Rokusho. He sprinted towards another roof and jumped, landing perfectly on his feet. Then his medasense tingled and he looked at the very place where the female medabot was. He found that suspicious, so he got closer to take a better look at what was happening.

"Hm... Is there anything I can help you with, sir?" - she asked.

"Yes. I need you to take me to him." - he withdrew a picture of Metabee from his blazer and showed it to her.

"He must be in another town by now. But he will come back later today." - then she noticed the man's hands were now at his side in the form of fists, the photo he had shown was slightly screwed up.

"Then take me to his house." - the man said while putting the piece of paper back inside his blazer.

"Sir, do you mind if I ask why do you want to see Metabee?"

"I have to... Settle up a score with him." - he told her - "Can you, please, take me to his house?" - even though the words were polite, his tone wasn't really kind.

Brass felt there was more to it... It didn't sound good.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to do this right now." - she noticed the man's fists shaking a bit - "You see, I'm really busy at the moment."

"Not the answer I was expecting." - he reached out, then a huge mechanical hand appeared and grabbed the medabot - "I'll ask you one more time. Will you take me to him?"

His grip was very tight, making her uncomfortable. She felt the same way she did when Fotoshoot used his special Entwining Film attack on her... Actually, worse, because, even if the film was holding her tightly, it was still a lot softer than that big metallic hand.

"What do you want with him?" - she asked.

"I told you already. Just simply settling a score up."

"There's more to it." - she said, then the grip tightened - "I... Don't... Trust you."

Rokusho landed on the roof right above them and observed. His eyes widened at what he saw happen.

"Well, then, I guess there's no other way." - he lifted her and slammed her very hard against the wall. That move dealt massive damage to her head and torso, what caused her function to cease. However, since her back was really wrecked and the man had it pressed against the wall, Brass' malfunctioned and her circuits fried, preventing her from ejecting her medal. The man took her body with him to his car.

"Stop!" - a voice said. He turned around to see Rokusho in a fighting stance. The man didn't say anything, he simply tossed something to the medabot.

The KWG-type grabbed what the man threw at him and stared at it: it was Erika's gift that Brass was carrying. Then he heard the sound of the car starting and saw the man placing the Sailor-Multi on the passenger seat. He reached out as if he were telling the man to wait, but the later didn't listen and took off.

"I'll need someone to deliver the message." - the man commented after seeing Rokusho following them through the rearview mirror, then stared at the defenseless medabot beside him - "If you won't take me to him, you'll bring him to me." - he said harshly, even though he knew she couldn't hear him at that time - "It didn't have to be this way... You could have prevented this." - he sighed, his tone and his expression softened - "Your stubbornness in trying to delay what is coming for him just made it all more difficult."

Rokusho chased the car all the way to a remote, dark and hard to find part of the city. He saw the man drag Brass to a house that seemed to have been abandoned since it was in bad shape. When he tried to get inside the house's yard, the gates closed and locked, then activated a defense mechanism that lit them up with static. No way he was getting in now.

He stared at the package he was still holding: he had to warn the others!


	3. The Golden Beetle

Metabee and Miss Nae arrived at Hannah's house. Oceana and her medafighter appeared and greeted both warmly. The medabot grabbed both Metabee's hands and shook them slightly.

"Long time no see, huh? How have you been?" - he asked.

"Great! Hannah and I have become closer than ever, we're inseparable now! And this was all thanks to you, Metabee. We'll never forget that." - she said staring at his eyes.

Were this happening several months ago, Metabee would have blushed and melted because of her words. Now he didn't feel like that. Still, when he stared back at her eyes he noticed something: he finally got it why the sparkle from Brass' eyes was so familiar, it was the very same sparkle that appeared in her eyes when Oceana's medal was in her body! That fact didn't bring back any of his feelings from that time, though. It actually made him realize that even that sparkle was also familiar somehow.

He started to look for an explanation for that, traveling by some old thoughts. It was then that he remembered something else: a scene from a dream. That sparkle... He had seen it before a really long time ago. It had given him the confidence to lead an army of medabots even when he feared he'd not be able to do that. At the moment he had had that dream, he didn't really pay attention to that detail, but sometime after, he wondered why did he see those events like that.

He had learned that the rare medals already existed and that many of his friends were cloned from them. He knew it couldn't have been Brass at that time, it surely was someone else, and even her model probably wasn't the same, then why did he see her? He had guessed the dream used familiar concepts to make it easier to understand. That medabot in the dream was somebody important to him, he figured it when he had analyzed what he was seeing and the way the dream suggested his actions. But why was Brass representing her? Why wasn't it another medabot?

He then finally thought of a reason that didn't leave his mind for several weeks: maybe Brass' medal was cloned from that medabot's rare medal. He considered that many medals could have come from that one, but Brass' might have been the one that ended up being the closest one to the original medal. He knew there could be another possibility though: her medal could have been cloned from his too, and his data banks could have provided the information about that medabot.

The thought of asking Dr. Aki about it had crossed his mind a lot, but something bothered him enough to make him avoid that question: he wasn't sure if he wanted to know that she was cloned from him or that he could actually find that original medal... And he didn't know why he felt that way.

"Metabee?" - Miss Nae said, snapping the medabot out of his drift.

"Huh? Miss Nae?" - he replied.

"I'm receiving a message from Ikki and Erika." - she showed him a device with the video message.

' _Hi, guys!_ ' - Erika said.

' _Metabee, what are you doing there with Miss Nae? You should be working on the garden! Mom's going to pick on me because of that._ ' - Ikki complained.

"I finished the task a lot earlier, Brass helped me." - Metabee crossed his arms and lowered his head with his eyes closed, trying to pose as if he were very relaxed - "And what are YOU doing there? You should be home by now."

' _I just got back from the groceries store! I'm on my way!_ ' - he shouted desperately.

"Hey, relax. I was just messing with you. You have a few minutes before your mom arrives."

' _Gee, thanks... You're really nice._ ' - Ikki said ironically.

' _Oh, great, now that Brass helped you, you gotta help me!_ ' - the Erika said while pushing Ikki to the side.

"I helped Brass too, alright? But go ahead, tell me what's it." - the KBT-type told her.

' _I need to find a gift for her! Miss Nae, do you know of anything I could give her?_ ' - she asked.

"Well, I received some material to make new parts for her, if you'd like that."

' _That seems good, though I'm a bit afraid of doing that. It'd feel like I'm replacing her._ '

"Oh, no, of course not. She'd not change, it'd actually be an upgrade from the SLR-1 to the SLR-2."

' _Then when would the parts be ready? This was the best suggestion so far._ '

"If I start working now, they'll be ready to use by tomorrow at night."

' _Aww, that's too late._ ' - she saw the MAR-type medabot and Hannah in the background, behind Miss Nae - ' _Are you guys visiting Oceana?_ '

"Yeah, Miss Nae had some new parts for her, so I came along." - Metabee said.

' _Wait, didn't you say Brass helped you today? Where's she?_ ' - Ikki asked.

"She was busy, trying to find a gift for Erika too. I gave her a little hand on that." - the yellow medabot told them while winking at Erika, hinting the gift was special.

"I gave her a lift to the store, though I did say Metabee should accompany her." - Miss Nae commented.

' _You left my Brass alone?!_ ' - Erika yelled at Metabee.

"What? But she said she'd be okay! Besides, I helped her find a really good gift for you!" - he tried to defend himself.

' _There's no need for a fancy gift if something bad happens to her! You better hope Brass will arrive home without one single scratch at all on her, otherwise..._ ' - she threatened, while Metabee cringed and sweat dropped - ' _Well, since you chose to go there, go look for something for my best friend!_ '

"On it!" - he saluted quickly, then ran and started exploring the place.

* * *

 

Darkness filled everywhere. There was no ground under the feet, no walls around, no noise, no air, no way to tell the temperature and it seemed as if there was no time. Brass couldn't feel her body, so she thought her medal wasn't on it. She felt lost, but then a light exploded and broke all the darkness. She found herself in a small basement, poor light allowed some vision.

"Guess you finally woke up." - a voice said. She looked to the side to find the man that had attacked her in the dark alley.

"You... You kidnapped me... Who are you?" - she demanded an answer.

"I'm just a miserable man looking for justice. And you forced me to do that when you didn't cooperate."

"There's no justice in attacking someone that has nothing to do with your personal quarrels!" - she had figured he probably was looking for a fight with Metabee when he said he wanted to settle a score up, she then got up and aimed her Patteri Vulcan at him - "Let me go now!"

"Don't shoot. The more trouble you cause, the worse things will get for both you and me."

The Sailor-Multi thought of a way of getting away: she shot a metallic shelf and it hit the man and stuck him on the ground. She leaped over the shelf and started her way to the door when she felt something pulling her. She noticed there was a cable hanging from her back that was attached to a plug, preventing her from going any further. Then a hand grabbed her left leg.

The man pushed the shelf off him with his free arm, then pressed his other hand so hard against the medabot's leg that the latter ended up crushed, but he didn't lose the grip on it. He swung this arm and brought it fast and brutally to the ground. The impact stunned Brass briefly, giving the man enough time to reach her right arm and smash it as well.

Luckily her tinpet didn't suffer too much damage from that. She was also glad that medabots didn't feel physical pain, otherwise, it would have hurt as much as a human having the limbs exploded, leaving only the bones left. She moved her functioning arm in front of her face protectively, waiting for another brutal attack, but it didn't come.

"Damn it, I won't destroy you! This would ruin everything!" - the man said - "You should have been grateful! I noticed the damage in your back was leaching your power, then I connected you on the plug so you wouldn't 'die'! But instead, you decide to make things even more complicated!" - he told her - "Since that is your choice..." - he walked up to a panel on the wall and released a full charge of electricity at the maximum potency through the wire, what gave Brass a huge shock but restored her power completely - "I'll let you walk freely in this room. The charge will keep you functional for about 9 hours." - then he removed the cable from her back - "I know it electrocuted you, I still need to fix the generator. The energy spikes disturbed me a lot lately."

She noticed her vision faded when the man detached her from the power source: she was blind! She had suffered a lot of damage in the first encounter and it got worse when he slammed her on the ground again, there was no way her self-repair system could fix that. The man dragged her and placed her in a sitting position, with her back being supported by a wall.

"There are no rats nor anything here, so you should be fine if you behave." - he said, then walked to the door - "I will check up on you every now and then. Coming from me, I know this might sound like a lie to you, but you shouldn't be here as a hostage. I guess this is all I can do for you." - he exited the room and locked the door behind him.

Brass realized the man wasn't like the Rubberrobos or Dr. Meta-Evil - just simply evil and greedy - he had a different purpose. Even though he did cause a lot of damage to her, he acted as if he regretted doing that, since he placed her carefully in a more comfortable position and his angry tone softened. She noticed he was more like Kam was: something in the past made him act like that, though he wasn't coldhearted as the kid used to be, he actually sounded as if he really cared about whatever was it that was bothering him. She pondered and decided she would get him to tell her what is the issue, maybe there'd be a way they could work this out without any more trouble.

* * *

 

The sun was starting to set. Metabee kept looking all over the place, without much success. He sat next to a river with his elbow on his knee and his head resting on his hand. Oceana came closer in her new body.

"Looking good." - he complimented. And she was pretty: her rose pieces were slightly different and were in a more reddish tone, her shoulders shared this tone as well, her eyes were blue, her chest and her tail had a bluish green tone, she had a piece on the head that reminded Brass' rose piece on the forehead, she only had one antenna coming from each ear, instead of three, and those little flying pets that accompanied her looked like seahorses.

"Thank you. Have you seen anything?" - she asked.

"Nothing so far." - his eyes examined her - "What about you? Did you like your new body?"

"Yes, it's really good. I just have to take some time to adjust to it." - she placed one hand on his shoulder - "I'm sure we'll find something eventually."

"Yeah, I know." - he stared at the river in front of him - "But it is taking pretty long." - it was then that something caught his attention - "What's that?" - he reached out for the water and grabbed something shiny. They were cracked pieces of gold! And there was a tiny diamond among them! How did those high-value things get lost like that?

' _Kyuumo!_ ' - a voice said in Metabee's head - ' _Where are we going?_ '

Suddenly his eyes went dark, but his function didn't cease. A scene started playing in his mind.

_Metabee was in his old model, the KBT-1, taking that medabot that looks like Brass to that big tree he had seen in that dream._

_'Now you can open your eyes!' - he said._

_'Wow, so this is your secret place!' - she said quite amused._

_'Yep. My favorite tree ever!'_

_'This place is really peaceful.'_

_They both sat beside each other and remained quiet, just enjoying the environment, until he broke the silence:_

_'Oh, here, I've been meaning to give you something.' - he put his arm behind him then brought it back holding an object and handed it to her._

_Whatever was it he was giving her, it made the female medabot's eyes sparkle a lot, and she held it close to her chest. Then, just as she came closer as if she were going to hug him, thanking him for the gift, a blinding light filled everything, preventing the rest of the scene from being seen._

* * *

 

' _Aww, really? So you won't be able to come?_ ' - Erika said through Miss Nae's computer.

"Sorry, we'll be busy by the time. But Oceana and I hope you two will have a great day, we're really happy for your friendship." - Hannah said warmly.

' _Hannah? Are you there?_ ' - Oceana's voice came from Hannah's medawatch almost as a whisper, then a hologram popped up, showing her vision - ' _You have to see this._ '

The girl moved her arm in a way Miss Nae, Erika, Ikki and herself could all watch. Everyone's eyes widened and their mouths opened in surprise: Metabee was turning some broken pieces of gold and a tiny diamond into a very beautiful object - a golden Hercules Beetle (or Kabuto). Miss Nae and Hannah decided to meet the two medabots.

Metabee's green eyes appeared again, then he stared at the golden beetle in his hand. So that was the object he had given to that medabot.

"Metabee?" - Oceana said, snapping him out of his trance - "How did you make that? It's beautiful."

"Did I... Make this?" - he looked at the beetle once again - "I don't know, I wasn't even aware of what I was doing."

' _Whatever you did, it was awesome!_ ' - they heard Erika's voice.

' _Yeah, I never knew you had a knack for handiwork, Metabee._ ' - Ikki teased a bit.

"That looks like a nice gift for Brass." - Miss Nae commented.

' _Now that you said that, it does look amazing!_ ' - the brown haired girl said - ' _Do you think she'll like it?_ ' - she asked still unsure, though she did think that was the best shot she would find.

"Absolutely." - Metabee said, startling everyone - "She will love this."

How could he be so sure, was something nobody would ever know.

* * *

 

Rokusho leaped over the roofs of the buildings in the city, swift as the wind. He held the gift package firmly and carefully protected by his cloak, even though that object had no actual value to him. His eyes paid attention to every detail around him, looking frenetically for any sign of Ikki or Metabee. He had to find the KBT-type as soon as possible! Somebody's integrity was at stake! He noticed far away from his current position, a group of people in the park and decided to get closer, maybe he'd find them there.

* * *

 

The dark sky from the night covered the city and a few stars could be seen. A robattle was about to take place at the park.

"Alright, Peppercat! Let's show them how it's done!" - Samantha said to her CAT-type medabot.

"Meow! Sure, boss!" - the red medabot entered her fighting stance.

The ones challenging them were Kam and Blakbeetle. Those two had become close friends and started robattling together sometimes since the Gryphon event. Watching the fight were: Sloan, Spyke, Ginkai, Zuru, Banjo, Suzie, Zumi, Tak, Moira, Ikki, Henry, Miss Nae, and all their medabots.

"So it's decided!" - a voice came from behind a tree. The person that approached was none other than Mr. Referee!

"Mr. Referee? What are you doing here?" - Ikki asked. It had been a really long time since they had last seen him.

"Since Extreme Tech suffered a reform and produced only medals similar to Blackbeetle's, the company decided to accept the rules of the medabot's robattles. Now I can referee battles between medabots and kilobots." - he said proudly and happy - "Also, many people that have kilobots still try to battle without rules... I have to keep them in line." - he winked at them, reminding them of what happened to the Rubberrobos when they attacked him.

The ones that saw the event cringed at the thought, while the others just exchanged confused glances. Blakbeetle cleaned her throat, trying to draw the attention from Mr. Referee. He looked at the four opponents, smiled shyly and sweat dropped slightly.

"Okay, this is an official robattle and all the rules apply! But since the medaparts aren't compatible with the tinpets, it won't be a submission robattle." - he looked to each duo then continued - "Medafighters ready? Robattle!" - he announced while moving his arm downwards.

"Peppercat, go get her!" - Samantha told her medabot. Kam and Blakbeetle knew who they were fighting against, though, they did remember how Peppercat had defeated Unitrix and Exor single-handed.

"Blackbeetle, hold position." - the boy told her.

Everyone was surprised by his command. His medabot was vulnerable! The red medabot appeared behind Blakbeetle ready to strike. The dark medabot just moved to the side, avoiding the attack.

"I got you!" - the KBT-type said then fired her missiles. That was the first time the others had seen her using that ability.

The missiles hit Peppercat directly, disabling both her arms and creating a lot of smoke. When the smoke faded, Peppercat had disappeared!

"Meow!" - the CAT-type was somersaulting above the black medabot, she hit the latter on the head with her tail, then kicked her, sending Blakbeetle to the ground some feet in front of her.

' _Left arm: function ceased. Missiles offline._ ' - Kam's medawatch warned. She was truly strong! Even with both arms disabled, she dealt a lot of damage.

Everyone got a bit tense: they knew Blakbeetle had more raw damage, but Peppercat was the fastest female medabot. That was going to be a tough battle.

"Peppercat, finish her!" - Samantha ordered. Peppercat jumped and prepared to land another powerful kick.

"Blakbeetle! That's your chance! Shoot this point!" - Kam told her and sent the date from his medawatch to her.

She aimed her right arm at a joint in Peppercat's knee and waited for the best moment. When the red medabot was about to strike, the KBT-type shot. The fight seemed to be over, but at the very second the CAT-type felt her leg being disabled, she swung her other leg and managed to kick Blakbeetle right on the face. The kick made the black medabot fall backward, and while she was falling, she shot twice at her opponent. Both collapsed on the ground. Suddenly, they saw Peppercat's medal ejecting.

"Function ceased! The winner is Blakbeetle!" - Mr. Referee announced.

"I... I won?" - Blakbeetle said while slowly sitting - "Haha, I won!" - she finally cheered.

Kam went to her and both hugged each other. Everybody warmed up. The boy did change a lot, those two had become real friends. Even Samantha admitted it was a good battle.

Arc-Dash ran to Peppercat after she had been activated again to see if she was okay. When she confirmed that, he couldn't hold back anymore and gave her a massive bear hug that made her eyes pop up wide. Everyone giggled at them. Metabee, on the other hand, felt a bit uneasy when seeing that scene, though he didn't know why. Something was wrong, but he couldn't say what. He just frowned slightly.

Then they heard a noise coming from the top of a tree and saw a blur moving very quickly in the air and landing in front of them: Rokusho. Roks tilted his head wondering who was that.

"Rokusho!" - all the others that knew him said in unison.

"Dude, it's been so long! How have you been? I bet you have a lot of cool stuff to tell us." - Metabee said while walking up to him.

"I'm afraid I didn't bring such good news this time." - the KWG-type said.

"Huh?" - everyone said.

"Guys!" - Erika's voice came. She ran up to the group, then took a short break to breathe.

"Erika, what's wrong?" - Ikki asked after seeing her panting.

"Have you seen Brass? She hasn't come back home yet! It's dark and I can't find her anywhere!" - she grabbed his arm desperately.

Everybody's eyes widened.

"I know where she might be." - Rokusho said.

Everyone turned to him and saw him reaching for his cloak and grabbing a package. He handed it to Erika.

"Is this...?" - she asked, her eyes were starting to tear up, while the medabot just looked downwards - "Oh!" - she closed her eyes and turned her head to the side, trying to deny this was happening - "We have to find her!" - she fell to her knees and looked at the others - "Please, Rokusho, lead the way." - she begged him, and he nodded.

Metabee felt worse. He knew something bad was happening! He didn't have the courage to look at Erika in the eyes. He stared at the ground, waiting for everyone to move.

* * *

 

"At the other side of the city? It's too far to go on foot!" - Ginkai said.

"I can give some of you guys a lift." - Miss Nae offered. Then they noticed Peppercat and Blakbeetle sitting on the ground, unable to get up.

"Those two still need to be repaired. You'll have to stay, Miss Nae." - Zuru frowned.

"I'll take you there." - Kam told them - "Eddy, bring the car to the East entrance. We'll be taking a few passengers with us."

The group was slightly surprised by his offer, but they gladly accepted it. Not all of them would fit in the car, so they decided who was going: Erika, Ikki, Zuru, Metabee, Roks, Tyrelbeetle, and Rokusho. There was one slot left. Honey looked at her medafighter expectantly.

"Go with them, Honey. Watch over them and be careful." - Miss Nae said. Her medabot bowed.

Nobody noticed Henry's disappearance. He had hidden behind a tree and switched clothes to wear his secret disguise: the Phantom Renegade. Brass had been kidnapped, but the person let Rokusho come back and with her package as if he were meant to...

"...Deliver a message." - he whispered to himself - "Something is wrong... That person is luring them to a trap!"

But he couldn't prevent them from saving the Sailor-Multi, she was Erika's best friend, and he himself knew what it was like to lose someone that important.

' _Arcbeetle._ ' He thought for a moment. He wouldn't allow them to walk into a trap like that, though. So he decided to follow them. Somehow he had the feeling that his interference might be necessary at some point in all of this.

The car arrived and the kids and their medabots got inside. Kam gave Blakbeetle one last squeeze on her hand before leaving.

"Don't worry, Kam. I'll be fine. Now you take care." - she told him while holding his hand with both hers.

He nodded smiling and entered the car. The vehicle took off quickly and headed to its destiny, trying to get there as soon as possible. They all had a rescue mission and they wouldn't fail.


	4. Menacing Eyes

Brass was sitting on the ground when the door opened. She didn't move at all, while steps came closer. The man kneeled beside her, plugged her on the cable again, restoring her vision, and examined her.

"You seem to be fine. The damage wasn't critical so you can be fixed." - he said.

She just nodded very slightly. He sighed. An injured hostage in an abandoned building... This wasn't what he had in mind. At least she wasn't human, so she wouldn't feel hungry, thirsty or hurt due to the damage she had suffered. But he knew she obviously was sad, angry, scared and lonely...

"What did he do to you?" - the Sailor-Multi asked. Her voice was really calm and soft, opposing all of the emotions he had thought she'd be feeling, and she had seen through him.

"He caused a lot of suffering to me." - he told her - "I will never forget how his stare sent chills down my spine." - he sat beside her and rested his back on the wall.

The female medabot stared at him. It looked like he was about to tell his story or at least part of it. She was ready to pay attention to every detail so she could try to formulate a possible solution.

* * *

 

"His hiding place is at an abandoned facility that used to produce electrical equipment. It's right next to the old gas factories located in the southern part of the city." - Rokusho said.

"I know thieves usually go to places like that, but why there?" - Eddy said - "That is one of the worst desert places in the city."

"Oh, just go faster!" - Erika said. She was really worried. The man just nodded, he understood her concern.

Ikki placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. Metabee watched as the girl unwittingly played with her fingers. He reached behind him, grabbed the golden beetle and then stared at it.

' _Make us proud, Kyuumo..._ ' Proud? How? He couldn't even look at Erika in the eyes after what he had allowed to happen to her best friend. But should he blame himself? He didn't know what to think. He had seen a situation that went terribly bad because of him. He didn't deal with his conscience, though. Or at least, if he did, he didn't remember...

_Blinding light filled everywhere. Strong gusts of wind could be felt. A really loud noise was all that could be heard. Suddenly: darkness, silence and the soft breeze pushing away the fog. Metabee stood at the top of what looked like a pile... Of medabots' bodies._

_His eyes widened. He kneeled in front of the body of that female medabot, then pulled it into a hug and held it in his arms. His voice seemed a lot shaken. He was scared._

_'What's going on here?' - he asked nobody - 'What's going on?!'_

_He felt helpless, so he just dragged the body with him to his peaceful place. He didn't know what to do. All he could think of was to stay there, hugging her body dearly..._

Dearly...? Metabee placed his elbow on the car's door's handle, then rested his forehead on his hand. He rubbed his face slightly, then noticed Honey was looking at him, her head tilting to one side. She pointed at the car's window with her head. He looked to the side and saw his reflection. There was something peculiar on his face... The KBT-type blinked in surprise, realizing what was happening. ' _Damn it. What am I thinking? What is wrong with me?_ ' His mind was screaming at him. He was sweating. He closed his eyes and shook his head, pushing those thoughts aside, otherwise, his circuits would fry from so much thinking.

Then, the car's horn was heard, and the vehicle stopped abruptly.

"What happened?" - Ikki asked. Kam's frowning face appeared then he showed them what was in front of the car: a really long traffic jam.

"Oh, no! What are we going to do now?" - Tyrelbeetle asked. Erika burrowed her face on her hands and started praying.

' _...Make us proud._ ' That was it: Metabee closed his shaking hand into a fist in front of him. Rokusho noticed the gesture. The KBT-type and the KWG-type looked at each other and nodded simultaneously. Suddenly, the yellow medabot opened the door and he and Rokusho jumped off the car.

"Metabee! What are you doing?" - Ikki was confused.

"This is gonna take too long!" - he yelled clenching his fist, then he turned to the medabot beside him - "Rokusho, lead the way!"

Rokusho ran fast while Metabee medachanged into his action mode and followed him close behind. Ikki just blinked at the determination his medabot had just shown.

"Guys, you better go after them." - Zuru told his medabots. Both turned into action mode as well and went the same way the other two had gone.

"I'm going too." - Honey exited the car and flew after the four medabots.

A man with a cape was standing at the top of a pole, watching everything. The Phantom Renegade noted that Metabee was acting differently. So he decided to follow the medabots and watch him closely.

The KBT-type was riding at the maximum speed. He was so fast that he seemed a yellow blur. Did they want to be proud? He would make them proud! But in a good way this time.

* * *

 

_The place that used to be a house was nothing but rubble. The sky was dark and was covered by a thick cloud of smoke. Everything around was on fire. Steps of metallic feet could be heard coming from all directions. Their noise was fading, they were walking away. Blood stains covered the wooden floor. A little boy laying on the ground and hugging his knees was crying. A dead man's body laid on the floor not too far from him._

_He heard some steps coming closer, then opened his eyes and looked towards the source of that sound. Menacing green eyes glowed in the middle of the burning flames. A yellow medabot walked up to the boy and stood in front of him. The boy started shaking when the mechanical being stared him down._

_Suddenly the kid froze: the KBT-type had aimed its gun straight to the child's left eye. The poor boy's eyes trembled. Without hesitation the medabot shot. His bullet destroyed the soft and innocent eye, pierced through the kid's skull and left his head with a hole and a trail of blood. The child's scream would have ripped any person's spandrel apart._

_A lot of blood spilled from the boy's mouth. His tears were bloody as well. He collapsed on the ground, covering what was left of his eye with one hand and biting his other hand, trying not to scream anymore and to withstand the pain. His bite was so hard that his hand started bleeding as well, but he couldn't feel it anymore._

_The medabot simply stared at the child curling into a ball and walked its way, not even bothering to finish him off._

_Several hours later, one of the rescue trucks that were patrolling the area looking for survivors spotted him. He was in really bad shape, almost gone. Somehow he had gotten lucky that the shot didn't damage his brain so much, otherwise, he'd have died almost instantly._

_He had survived for a reason. And that reason was..._

"To bring justice to this." - the man said, concluding his memory.

He removed his cap from his head, revealing his hidden face. Brass would have cringed, but she watched her gestures. She didn't think Metabee could have been capable of shooting a kid in cold blood like that. She felt sorry for the man's story and purpose, though.

"Is this justice or revenge...?" - she asked quietly.

The question caught the man off guard. She was really smart. She guessed his feelings with great precision. He noticed she seemed to be open to more talking as if she intended to actually help him sort his problems out. Maybe he could tell her the whole story. Maybe he should... Wait. No. He had gone that far already, he wouldn't give up now! He had to do it! He just sighed and looked away, placing his cap back on his head.

* * *

 

Ikki rested his chin on his hands, while his elbows were supported by his knees. Erika had finally calmed down a bit, but she still looked pretty sad. Zuru just stared outside through the window. Kam had joined them in the seats on the back of the car and had just started talking to Blakbeetle.

'I'm good as new now. See?' - her vision appeared from Kam's watch and she showed him she was okay.

"Yes, I can see." - her medafighter giggled - "Thank Miss Nae for me."

Erika looked at him and an idea popped on her mind.

"Ikki, use your medawatch to show what Metabee is seeing." - she said - "So we can know where they are."

The boy nodded, then entered the command in his medawatch. Nothing happened, then a message appeared. He blinked.

"It says he's unavailable, he must be too far away!" - he said.

"What?" - Zuru questioned in disbelief - "It can't be, take a look here." - he showed then his medawatch. Roks and Tyrelbeetle visions showed Metabee right in front of them in his action mode form.

"But... Why can't I see his vision?" - the black haired boy frowned.

* * *

 

Far ahead of the car were the medabots, running as fast as they could. A shadow moved from one roof to another. The Phantom Renegade had incredibly managed to chase the medabots even though they were moving really rapidly.

They reached a point where the traffic jam had gotten way better. An endless number of cars crossed the street right in front of them at high speed. Rokusho ran ahead, jumped on a wall, then pushed his legs against the wall, what sent him flying above the cars. He landed on the other side of the road.

Roks transformed into his normal mode and did the same as Rokusho, though he had to somersault to reach the other side. Both KWG-types looked to the others. Metabee and Tyrelbeetle wouldn't be able to jump like that. Honey flew closer to the ground.

"I'll carry you two to the other side. One at a time." - she shouted.

The blue medabot beside her turned into normal mode and prepared to be carried, but the yellow one didn't. They saw the KBT-type running really fast in his action mode, his speed didn't reduce a single bit, it actually got higher and higher.

' _Is he insane?!_ ' The Phantom Renegade thought, realizing what the medabot was planning. But he couldn't get in there to prevent him from doing that.

"What is Metabee trying to do?" - Roks asked.

"Huh?" - Rokusho tried to spot him on the other side of the street, then he saw his eyes were completely black - "Don't!" - he warned.

"Metabee, no!" - Honey cried, reaching her arm out.

"Stop!" - Tyrelbeetle yelled.

Metabee ignored them all. He couldn't listen or see anything. He just kept going without slowing down. ' _C'mon! We'll be late!_ ' No. He wouldn't be late.

* * *

 

"He is going for it!" - Erika said alarmed.

Everyone's eyes widened. Was he crazy?! He'd never make it! That was suicide! Zuru and Kam sweated concerned.

"Metabee!" - Ikki cried to his medawatch.

* * *

 

Metabee reached the end of the sidewalk: now it was too late. The next moments passed in slow motion to all the others, as they watched one of the most impressive feats of that medabot.

His eyes lit up again at the very second right before he entered the road. He managed to barely dodge a car by a few centimeters, riding in front of it way faster than it was moving. He passed very smoothly under another car and finally hopped over the last vehicle, spinning in the air in a way that boosted his speed.

"Rokusho!" - he shouted at his friend - "Keep moving!" - he landed on the other side without one single scratch at him.

The KWG-type was surprised, but did as he was told, and jumped right before the yellow medabot's wheels touched the ground. The KBT-type didn't stop for even a moment before following. Roks blinked speechlessly, then transformed into action mode and went after them. Honey carried Tyrelbeetle and placed him on the other side, where he also medachanged, so they could continue on their way.

The Phantom Renegade just watched in disbelief. Something unknown was guiding Metabee... He'd never be able to do that by himself. ' _I better keep an eye on him._ ' He thought. Those crazy stunts might lead him to a bad fate. He was being way too reckless.

The masked man threw a rope that got stuck in the traffic light, then jumped off the building he was, swinging to reach the other side of the street. But instead of landing safely, he swung straight to a pole at the same side and smashed his face against it, what made him let go off the rope and slide until he hit the ground.

After that, he noted an old lady was beside him, waiting patiently for the traffic light to signal the cars to stop. Such an event happened a few seconds later and the lady calmly crossed the street. The Phantom Renegade got up as soon as he could and ran for it as well, but when he was halfway there, the traffic light signaled the cars to move again.

Several vehicles passed by him at very high speed. He "danced" in the road, dodging the cars, desperately trying to get to the other side alive. Horns could be heard, the rapid vehicles were mere blurs of light in the darkness.

Oh, he had sent himself to such a mess! He scolded himself for his clumsiness. After a few seconds, he finally was able to jump on a truck then somersault to the sidewalk. Phew, talk about being lucky...

He took some time to catch his breath, then threw another rope at the top of a building. This time, he double checked if his path was going to be safe.

* * *

 

Ikki rested his back on the seat, sighing in relief. That was close!

"How... How did he do that?" - Erika asked.

She was amazed by his bravery. And she wasn't the only one.

* * *

 

Back at the park, Miss Nae and the others had just watched everything through Honey's vision.

"Did you see that?" - Spyke commented.

"No way!" - Sloan was astonished.

Samantha felt a bit uncomfortable, she was slightly jealous of Metabee's power and the awe it always caused, but she pushed those feelings aside: Peppercat was her partner, she was powerful too, even if she couldn't summon the Medaforce, and the girl would never trade her best friend for a rare medal.

"But... How...?" - Arc-Dash was wondering what was happening.

"It's so simple. How come you don't know?" - a voice startled them.

They looked behind them and saw none other than the chick salesman, though instead of chicks, he had bunnies now.

"Who are you?" - Ginkai demanded.

"I'm just a humble man selling bunnies and offering his advice." - he said while gently petted one of the rabbits.

"Aww! They are so cute!" - Suzie's eyes sparkled - "I want three of them!"

"Sold!" - the salesman handed her the bunnies.

It was the first time he was actually selling a pet, and he sold three at once! He couldn't stop grinning!

"Ahem!" - the red KBT-type medabot cleared his throat - "What's so simple? I don't follow." - he asked him.

"Have you ever felt the intense energy a strong bond can provide?" - he said.

Suzie sat on the ground with her three bunnies next to Blakbeetle, then handed the medabot one of the pets.

"You mean... The Medaforce?" - Banjo spoke - "But what does it have to do with any of that?"

Another one of the rabbits jumped on the black medabot's shoulder, and she and the girl giggled.

"Given the right moment, a strong bond can reveal certain hidden special abilities." - he explained.

Peppercat walked to the girl and the medabot with the bunnies and sat beside them. A rabbit on Blakbeetle's shoulder was rubbing its face against her head, while the one she was holding poked its head out and nuzzled the CAT-type medabot, making her giggle too. They were truly cute!

"You should know about it. You discovered one of yours just like that." - he stared at Arc-Dash then looked briefly at Peppercat.

She was now having some fun with the bunnies. They liked her and it seemed that they were getting along pretty well. She was even purring at them.

The red male medabot was feeling warm inside while watching that scene. Then tilted his head, trying to understand the salesman words. Suddenly he remembered the very moment he unleashed his Medaforce for the first time.

_Peppercat had just won against both Unitrix and Exor, when Blakbeetle arrived and shot her, ceasing her function. He got really mad and started glowing: the dormant power of the rare medal had awakened. He blasted Blakbeetle with the Medaforce, forcing Minitora and Kintora to retrieve her medal and retreat with their kilobots._

Ah... So that's it! Now he understood what he meant! Hey, wait a second... Didn't that also mean that Metabee probably...

"Oh, geez... How come I never figured that?!" - Arc-Dash laughed awkwardly while facepalming.

Ginkai looked at him confused, then he blinked surprised as he realized as well what his medabot just did.

The only ones that shared that same conclusion were The Screws and Blakbeetle, the others were still confused, though the first ones decided they wouldn't bother explaining that to them.

* * *

 

Rokusho led the medabots to the facility. The gates were still locked. Metabee was acting recklessly again, so he stayed in action mode and tried to pass through the gates. But before he could do that, Rokusho reached out, grabbed one of the barrels of his missile launcher on his head and threw Metabee a few feet back. He medachanged into normal mode while in the air, then landed on his butt.

"Hey, what was that for?!" - he asked a bit angry, shaking his fist at Rokusho.

"I am protecting you from this." - the KWG-type picked a random piece of paper that was on the ground, crumpled it, then tossed it on the gate. The paper was electrocuted and set on fire. Not many seconds later, it was nothing but ashes.

' _There you go again, Kyuumo._ ' Her voice echoed in his mind, making him realize he was acting like an idiot.

"Oh..." - the yellow medabot's face fell - "Eh, thanks, Rokusho." - he rubbed the back of his head.

The purple and silver medabot nodded. He knew how Metabee felt too well, after all, he himself had felt frustrated like that once, so he comprehended.

"How are we going to pass through it?" - Tyrelbeetle asked.

"Up there! Look!" - Roks pointed to an electric cable connected to the building's roof.

Honey flew high in the sky towards the cable and followed it, trying to find the energy source. The Phantom Renegade came jumping from one roof to another until he landed in a kind of tower that seemed to be a "dead end". He observed the medabots trying to work their way to the facility.

"I found it!" - the blue-eyed medabot told them while she floated in front of a tower.

"Good job, guys. Now leave the rest to me!" - Metabee aimed his head at the top of the tower - "Seeker Missiles launch!" - he yelled.

The missiles flew leaving a trail of smoke behind. Honey quickly returned to the ground to avoid them. The masked man noticed where the missiles were headed to...

' _HERE!_ ' He sweatdropped nervously. With nowhere to run to, he just waited. The missiles created a really big explosion. The tower released all its electric charges on the Phantom Renegade and pretty much toasted him before collapsing. He lost his balance when the tower's base succumbed, then fell to the ground and remained there. That just was not his day... He sighed. At least he had survived... Barely.

* * *

 

"Well, since you behaved, I'll allow you to recharge your power." - the man said.

"Thank you." - Brass really needed that.

It was then that a loud explosion was heard. The ground shook a bit. Everything inside the facility suffered a short-circuit, the lamps exploded, leaving everywhere dark. The Sailor-Multi received a huge electric charge that made even some smoke to come out of her, then fell to the ground. The man had to jump away from her, otherwise, he would have been toasted.

"Hm... I think this means your friends have come for you." - he removed what as left of the cable from her back - "About time! Now I can finally fulfill my purpose." - he exited the room quickly.

The SLR-type medabot slowly got back to her sitting position. She felt as if a nightmare was about to start. She hoped she was wrong about it.

* * *

 

Rokusho and Roks used their blades to cut a big hole on the gate.

"Wait, we can't all go there. Somebody has to cover the exit." - Tyrelbeetle said.

"I'll stay here then." - Honey offered herself to help - "I can float to signal Ikki and the others that we are here when they arrive. I can also guard the gate from the sky."

"Alright." - Metabee nodded - "Take care, Honey. Let's go, guys!" - he charged through the gate with the others following close behind.

The KBT-type wasn't going to let anything wrong happen now. Brass wouldn't have to worry anymore: a knight in shining armor (literally) was coming to her rescue.

' _Thank you so much, Kyuumo._ '


	5. The Dark Corridors

Metabee and the three KWG-types crossed the garage and reached the front door.

"It's locked." - Tyrelbeetle said after trying to push or pull the double door.

"Then let's bust it open!" - Metabee prepared his missiles.

But before he could launch them, Rokusho charged at him and pushed him to the ground, canceling his attack.

"Don't do it!" - the silver and purple medabot told him. The KBT-type growled enraged while he was getting up.

"Why did you stop me?!" - he demanded.

"We can't just invade like that. It'd reveal our position and we could be baited! That explosion was already more than enough noise."

"I don't care! I can knock out whoever is there easily." - he punched his hand - "We're wasting time here. Brass needs our help! Now, out of my way!" - he tried to aim his missiles once again.

"What if she were right behind that door?" - Rokusho asked him - "Would you dare to risk hurting her yourself?"

Metabee froze. He hadn't thought of that possibility. He also realized he was going to make a mistake by alerting the kidnapper more than he already had done. He placed one knee on the ground and rested his arm on the other, then lowered his head.

"No. You're... Right." - he punched the ground growling. Damn it! What a stupid idea! It had a huge flaw and he didn't even consider it! Idiot! Why couldn't he focus?!

"Metabee, I know what it's like." - the KWG-type placed a hand on his shoulder - "I was really frustrated when I thought Dr. Aki had caused Dr. Hushi's death, remember? My rage blinded me, but you told me I shouldn't let that happen." - he saw Metabee turning his head to look at him in the eyes - "You should follow your own lessons as well."

"Rokusho..." - the yellow medabot said.

Roks then had an idea: he used his thin sword's blade to unlock the door. They opened silently, revealing a large, dark and desert corridor filled with several doors on each side.

"Let's go." - Rokusho said while Metabee nodded, then he helped him up.

The four medabots entered. The rescue mission had started.

* * *

 

Miss Nae had just finished gathering her tools and loading her vehicle. She decided to check how things were going with Honey. She tapped her medawatch and her medabot's vision appeared. It looked like the street was desert, not one single car could be seen.

"Well, I guess that by this time the traffic jam must have gotten better. It's past midnight already." - she said.

' _Yes. Erika and the others might arrive anytime. Maybe you should come too. I have a feeling that we'll need to be repaired after this is done._ ' - Honey told her.

"Right. Guys, I'll go to that facility now. Who wants to come with me?" - she asked.

"Arc-Dash and I are in!" - Ginkai said while his medabot nodded.

"I want to go too." - Blakbeetle got up and ran to a seat in the car.

"Okay, get in the car. We need to hurry."

"I'll watch over these kids." - the salesman said.

Miss Nae smiled, then entered the car. The vehicle took off at high speed. If they were lucky, they wouldn't have to wait in the traffic jam like Ikki, Erika and the others had.

* * *

 

The four medabots walked by the large corridor as silently as possible. They only talked to each other in whispers: they had to be careful to not draw attention. Roks had his thin blade always ready since he was going to be the one unlocking the doors.

Fortunately, most of the rooms they passed by had windows, so they could just look inside through them without having to waste time unlocking a door just to find out that was the wrong room.

For some unknown reason, the air felt thicker and thicker as they went further inside the facility.

"This doesn't seem good." - Roks commented.

"Here, this room." - Rokusho called them - "Looks like there's a fog inside, I can't see through the glass."

His look-alike medabot walked to the door and unlocked it. As the moonlight illuminated the room, they entered it.

"What the hell is this?" - Metabee asked.

Their eyes widened. The room was really cold, though it didn't matter way too much to them, and it was filled with several damaged tinpets hanging from the ceiling.

"Geez, this place is giving me the creeps." - Tyrelbeetle said.

Most of the tinpets only had a few scratches on them, others were a bit worse with some cracks and holes, and some were even missing parts like one leg or one arm. Among them, there was a female tinpet that drew their attention. It was in really bad shape. The right leg was missing and the left leg and the right arm had been cut in half, it didn't have both eyes and the rest of the face was wrecked.

Metabee stared at it for some time, when a scary scene came to his mind: _replacing the tinpet was Brass, but now she looked even worse, because she was covered by a dark liquid, some wires were hanging from the arm and the leg cut in half and sparks came from the left eye socket._

_The SLR-type lifted her head and "looked" at Metabee. 'Why...?' she muttered. He just shook his head slightly, trying to deny what he was seeing and that it had happened because of him. 'Why, Metabee?' she seemed a bit angry. She then reached her left arm out and grabbed one of his. 'Why did you do this to me?!' She yelled at him madly, her voice was full of hatred and her face was mere inches away from his. No..._

"No!" - the KBT-type stumbled and fell backward.

"Metabee, what's wrong?" - Rokusho kneeled beside him. Then he noticed: Metabee was in the same stated he was when he fought the Rubberrobos and failed to protect the Old Tree from the fire attacks of their medabot. He was having an inner conflict and was stuck in his subconscious.

* * *

 

The man was in a tight room dressing with a black armored gear. He moved his arms and legs as if he were punching and kicking the wind. He checked its Rearranging ability, making the armor move some of its plates from the rest of the body to his hand, creating a massive fist. He swung his arm a bit and noticed he could lift that fist without too much effort, then the armor's plates moved back to their original positions.

Everything seemed to be in order, the outfit wasn't as heavy as he had thought and it processed his commands almost instantly. The only problem was that when he Rearranged, while his fists or his feet would become able to deal brutal damage, the rest of the body would be vulnerable, so he'd have to watch out for possible precise attacks.

Other than that, the outfit was everything he needed to outmatch a medabot. It gave him a huge boost on his speed and strength, and it would certainly give him an edge in a fight.

But then he remembered one detail: the Medaforce. That attack combined a high amount of really intense energy into a beam. It could fry his armor. And that's why he had created a special ability for his armor's virtual interface. It could identify what kind of energy the attack used and materialize a shield made of that energy to absorb it.

He had previously tested it against fire, electric and some beam attacks and it worked just fine. Now he'd have to hope it would protect him from the Medaforce as well since he had never been able to truly test it against the rare power.

He dressed his black blazer, put his cap and walked out of the room. He checked on the female medabot one last time, then closed the door of the basement. He pressed a button on his head beside his left eye, and it activated a holographic dark panel in front of his eyes. The panel showed some scanners detecting movement, heat and electrical activity inside the facility so he could track the intruders.

"Hm... They didn't bring the kids along." - he noticed the scanners were only picking up movement and electrical activity of four individuals on the floor above the one he was - "This will make things a lot easier." - he ran as fast as lightning towards the emergency stairs.

* * *

 

_Everything was dark. There was no way to tell how large was this place Metabee was. He stood up and looked around: it was desert._

_'Metabee!' - a voice shouted from behind him. He turned around and saw the SLR-type._

_'Brass! You okay? Stay there, I'm coming!' - he ran towards her - 'Huh? What the...?'_

_The more he ran, the bigger the distance between them. What was wrong?! He started running faster and faster, but in vain: the Sailor-Multi just vanished more and more as several images of herself and also of some moments Metabee and her had flashed quickly and disappeared._

_Some giggles and voices shouting his name were heard in the background. The many voices merged into a mess of noises that was becoming louder and louder. Suddenly, he stumbled and fell forwards to the ground. He lifted his head and reached his right arm out for his fading friend._

_'Wait! Come back here!' - he frowned - 'Brass!' - then his head turned abruptly to one side as if he had been slapped on the face, and a blinding light filled everything._

* * *

 

Metabee's eyes lit up as he gasped. He touched his face with his left hand: yes, it had been slapped. Rokusho and the other two were crouching in front of him, the first one left out a sigh and stood up.

"Metabee, are you alright?" - Roks asked while offering his hand to help him up.

"Yeah, I'm fine." - the KBT-type said while he was helped up, then he started stroking his face - "Ouch... What did hit me?"

"Oh, eh... Sorry about that." - Tyrelbeetle rubbed the back of his head - "You see..."

A short flashback was told. _The three KWG-types stood in front of Metabee not knowing what to do._

_'Metabee, can you hear me?' - Rokusho shook his friend slightly trying to wake him up._

_'What's wrong with him?' - Roks asked._

_'He's facing an inner conflict. If he doesn't wake up when we call him, we'll have to wait for him to sort out his issue. We shouldn't interfere.' - the older medabot explained._

_'We don't have time!' - Tyrelbeetle said - 'He'll be mad at us if he finds out we just stood here when we should be looking for Brass!' - he swung his arms just to make a kind of gesture and accidentally hit Metabee hard on the face with one of them, almost knocking him to the ground._

_All the KWG-types sweat dropped and their eyes widened for they were startled and worried by what that slap could have caused to their friend in that situation._

The blue medabot "smiled" and shrugged shyly. Metabee just placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay. Eh... You, uh... Did the... Right thing?" - he said shrugging, then looked at the other two - "Anyways, we can't waste time. Let's move."

The four exited the room and continued their search. A few minutes later they found two corridors going separate ways.

"What now? Split up?" - Tyrelbeetle suggested. They all nodded. It was the best idea, they would take way too long if they all went one way and then the other.

"Metabee and I will go this way." - Rokusho said.

"Wait, what about the doors?" - Roks asked showing his blade. He was referring to the fact that his blade was thinner than Rokusho's.

"Don't worry, I can unlock them too." - the older KWG-type swung his sword and cut the lock of a door beside him in half. He unlocked the doorway faster than Roks did, but his way was slightly noisy compared to the other KWG's.

"Cool move, Rokusho. No need to worry about the noise, I got your back." - Metabee said, then both entered the room quickly.

The newer KWG-type just blinked. Tyrelbeetle went beside him and elbowed him lightly.

"Don't worry, Roks. You're still the best KWG partner for me." - the blue medabot told him while placing his hands on his hips.

Roks sweatdropped. What was he talking a...? Oh, who was he kidding?! He did get a little bit upset by that! But... Was his slight disappointment that noticeable? He better forget about it and continue the mission.

Both walked through the other dark corridor looking for another door.

* * *

 

Honey was alone flying around the facility's gate. The night was cold, but not enough to bother a medabot. She flew back and forth as if she were on a patrol. Suddenly she saw two lights coming from the horizon: it seemed to be a car.

"It must be Ikki and the others." - she flew a bit higher to take a better look. The car got closer: yes, it was them.

"Oh, finally. It took forever!" - Ikki said after looking at the facility through the window.

The vehicle stopped, and the kids opened its door.

"Honey, where are the others? And why are you here alone?" - Erika asked.

"They are all inside. I stayed here to signal you that we had arrived." - she replied.

"Hm... That was smart thinking." - Zuru commented - "Good thing you were here to give us a heads up. I can barely see anything through my medawatches."

"At least your medabots allow you to see. Metabee didn't communicate since he left the car. It's been several minutes." - Ikki sighed, he was worried about him.

"He was acting a little strange. He was often angry and almost picked up a fight with his old friend twice." - Honey told them.

"Metabee!" - the boy called on his medawatch, then saw again the message about not being available - "Why won't he answer me?"

"At least you still are able to talk to him. He's just ignoring." - Erika said - "I can't say anything to Brass at all, and I've been hearing only some weird noises coming from my medawatch whenever I try to talk to her." - she showed them the medawatch's sound and it didn't have any message as Ikki's did. It surely wasn't a good thing.

While they talked, the Phantom Renegade got up from the electric tower rubble nearby. He rubbed his back. Damn, it hurt! He stared quickly at the group of kids. He decided to pass by them and get to the building without being noticed. After doing that, he sprinted inside.

"Let's go, guys." - Ikki said and the four kids plus the medabot entered the place fast.

The masked man was ahead of them inside the facility when he heard their steps coming rapidly from behind him. What would he do now?! He then had an idea! He climbed to the ceiling by jumping from one wall to the other, then stretched his limbs to keep himself balanced and "stuck" above the ground. He looked downwards: the kids were walking by him. Suddenly a noise startled them and made them stop right below the Phantom Renegade.

The man with a cape felt himself starting to slip. He sweatdropped. C'mon, he couldn't appear now! He pushed his limbs against the walls as much as he could, but he still kept slipping slowly. After a few seconds, he was right above their heads. 'What are you waiting for? Move!' Finally, the kids started walking again. Phew... That was close. Suddenly, the friction gave up and he fell to the ground right behind Erika.

The girl heard the noise coming from so close that she screamed and hid behind Ikki. The boys turned to see the man slowly getting up, while Honey stood in front of them protectively.

"That's..." - Ikki started after seeing the mask - "The Phantom Renegade! What are you doing here?"

"Just thought I should make sure I would be here in case my interference turns up to be necessary." - he replied.

"Why would you have to interfere?" - Erika asked.

He was up to something, he knew more and was not telling them.

* * *

 

"It's empty as well." - Tyrelbeetle said disappointed - "We're not that lucky today."

"We need to keep looking." - Roks told him.

The silver and purple medabot felt the wind moving and became alert, entering a fighting stance. The blue medabot was confused.

"What's wrong, Roks?" - he asked.

"We're not alone here." - he said, making his partner enter a fighting stance as well.

After a few seconds, steps could be heard getting closer and closer. The two medabots stared at the sound's direction. Then something came from the darkness: a tiny harmless cat. Both sighed and the animal meowed.

"You scared me, little kitty." - the larger medabot kneeled and petted the kitten.

Roks opened another door that had a glass window on it and entered a room. It was really dark, he had to walk further inside to see if there was anything there. All he saw was a table with a mirror on it. He picked up the object and saw something peculiar in the reflection: a shadow of somebody. Before he could turn around, the shadow moved quickly outside and locked the door.

The KWG-type ran and tried to unlock the door with his blade, but had no success, so he started punching it.

"Roks, how did you get stuck in there?" - his friend asked and tried to pull the door.

"Tyrelbeetle, look out!" - he pointed behind the other KWG-type.

The blue medabot turned around just to be met with a huge fist that sent him flying across the corridor, ceasing his function. Roks started beating the door up, trying to get out. He saw a dark dressed figure walking toward his friend's body. He picked him up, placed him in a sitting position next to the wall, then put his medal on his hand and closed his fingers around it. The still functioning KWG-type blinked. Who was that person?

"I'm sorry for your friend... And for you. But I can't allow you to interfere." - the man said.

"It was you, wasn't it?" - Roks figured - "Why did you kidnap her?"

"She didn't cooperate when I asked a favor politely." - upon seeing the medabot's angry expression he continued - "She'll be fine as long as you stay out of my way. My business is with Metabee."

The man walked away, leaving the wroth medabot alone punching the door's window.

* * *

 

Metabee and Rokusho were still looking for Brass, room after room. Several minutes later they found the end of the corridor with two stairs: one going downwards and the other going upwards.

"You've got to be kidding me!" - the KBT-type complained about having two separate ways again, after all, without Rokusho he'd have a hard time trying to open doors. But something occurred to him: he had a gut feeling telling him that he should go to the floor below the one he was. He didn't know why, but he was almost sure he'd find her there.

"I know what you are thinking about." - the KWG said - "Go on, down there there's probably only the door to the basement. I'll go to the upper floor just to make sure we won't miss her, in case she's not there."

"Alright." - Metabee nodded and both continued on their ways.

The purple and silver medabot only had one long corridor with four rooms to look. This should be fast, he might be able to catch up with Metabee soon enough. He walked by one door, unlocked it and peered inside the room: aside from a few monitors, it was empty.

He went further into the corridor and opened the second door: it had only two boxes pilled up in a corner. He got to the third room: there was a large table in the center with some chairs around it and two dark corners at the end of the room. He entered to check those barely visible places.

As he walked to one of the corners, the sound of an electric spark became louder, as if it was getting closer. Could that be her? He sprinted towards the sound only to find nothing, though the noise persisted. It was then that he noticed what was happening. He felt the wind and noticed somebody's movement.

Rokusho quickly turned around and saw a tall man holding two wires close to each other that were making the spark's sound. The dark dressed person charged at him, trying to electrocute him, but he jumped high just in time and landed on the person's head, then leaped again to get away.

* * *

 

"This wasn't any kidnap." - the Phantom Renegade told the girl - "Have you noticed how this person allowed Rokusho to come back and send the message? This is obviously a trap."

"How do you even know about that?" - Ikki asked.

"Ah... Well..." - the young man sweatdropped, he wasn't expecting that - "...I have my information sources."

"Wait... You spy on us?" - Erika thought of it, then something occurred to her mind that made her really mad - "You pervert!" - she slapped him on the face, but not hard enough to send his mask flying.

"No! I don't spy on you like that!" - he yelled startling everyone - "Anyways, that's not the point. Can't you see this person wants us here? This person is after one of us."

"How can you be so sure about it?" - the girl didn't want to believe it, but she herself had the feeling that he was right.

"He does have a point." - the boy with a short ponytail said - "Whoever did this didn't try to communicate with us asking for money or something like that in exchange for Brass' freedom."

"Also, there's not much this person could exploit from a medabot if it doesn't have a rare medal." - Kam pointed out - "She's being used as a bait to lure us."

"Oh... Stop saying that." - Erika placed her hands on her ears, she was scared. Honey hugged her, trying to calm her down a bit.

"I'm sorry, Erika, but the proof is right here." - Zuru showed them his medawatch with Roks' vision - "Tyrelbeetle was attacked and Roks is locked in a room somewhere." - he told them, then spoke to the medawatch - "Are you okay, Roks? And how's Tyrelbeetle?"

' _Yes, master. I can't see him properly from here, but there doesn't seem to be too much damage._ ' - the medabot said - ' _I found a way of getting out through the window, but I can't leave Tyrelbeetle alone._ '

"Can you tell me where your room is located?" - the medafighter asked.

' _When you reach the end of the first corridor, just go to the left. This room must be the seventh._ '

"Okay, you can go help the others now, I'll be there with Tyrelbeetle soon."

' _Alright, master._ ' - the sound of glass shattering could be heard, the medabot had left.

The kids and the Phantom Renegade ran to the point where Roks had told them the room was. They found Tyrelbeetle sitting on the ground. He only had a scratch on his head, nothing too serious. Zuru took his medal from his hand and placed it in his back.

"Master! Where... Where is Roks?" - the blue medabot asked.

"I told him to go to the others. Are you alright?" - Zuru spoke.

"Yeah. Though I can feel the bump on my head..." - he slid his fingers by his head carefully - "Oww... Something hit me pretty hard." - he saw the Phantom Renegade behind the kids - "Who's that guy?" - then something came to his mind, he remembered a dark dressed figure before he was knocked out - "Are you the one that hit me?!" - he got up and prepared to fight.

He charged at the masked man, grabbed him with his horns, pushed him against the wall so he couldn't escape and gave him a shock.

"Tyrelbeetle, stop!" - Ikki said - "He's a friend!"

"What? A friend?" - he let go of the smoking man.

"Yes, he's been with us for a while already. He offered his help." - Honey told him.

"Well, if you say so." - he walked away from him - "Uh... Sorry."

"It's... Okay..." - the young man coughed and got up while dusting his clothes off, then cleared his throat to talk again - "We need to go. The others might be needing our support right now."

They all nodded and followed the other corridor.

* * *

 

Rokusho leaped backward and dodged the punches coming from the man, whose fists collided with the chairs and the table, breaking them into pieces. The medabot jumped on a wall and used it to impulse him forward so he could land a powerful blow with his sword.

The man used the huge fists' armor to deflect the attack, he swung his hand and slapped the KWG-type, sending him flying towards the window. The medabot's head broke through the glass and he got stuck. As he tried to get out, the man pinned him down against the window's base, attempting to damage his torso and cease his function.

* * *

 

Miss Nae's van arrived at the facility. They talked to Eddy and he told them the kids had entered the building about 20 minutes ago.

"Then we should hurry inside too." - Ginkai said.

Suddenly they heard the noise of glass shattering and looked upwards. They saw Rokusho being pinned down by a dark dressed person.

"He needs help!" - Miss Nae was alarmed.

Then they saw something running on the roof, coming from the other side of the building: a blur of silver and purple.

"Is that Roks?" - Arc-Dash wondered.

Roks sprinted towards Rokusho, broke the glass and charged at the man, allowing the older KWG-type to get out. A few seconds later, Roks was thrown outside through another window, then slid by the roof. When he was about to fall, he managed to grab the roof's edge.

The four watching gasped. Blakbeetle looked around quickly, then saw a couple of wooden boxes where she could jump on to reach the roof. She ran to them, with Arc-Dash close behind. Both salted and climbed to the roof.

"Here, I got you!" - she held Roks' wrist firmly so he could let go off the edge, then she pulled him back to the roof - "What's happening? Where are the others?" - she asked while Arc-Dash shot a few times at the windows.

"They are fine. We just caught the kidnapper." - he got up and prepared his sword.

' _Roks! Go get him!_ ' - Zuru's voice came from the medabot's ears - ' _We're on the way._ '

"Yes, master!" - he sprinted towards a window and jumped inside the building.

' _You too, Arc-Dash!_ ' - Ginkai's voice spoke.

"On it!" - the KBT-type charged.

' _Blakbeetle, join them._ ' - Kam instructed his kilobot.

"Right!" - she started shooting and running.

"Let's get going then." - Miss Nae told Ginkai and both ran inside.

 

* * *

 

Back at the corridors, the other kids and the Phantom Renegade were running, Kam and Zuru had their medabots' visions on their screens.

"I don't see Metabee there." - Ikki said and all noticed that.

"He was with Rokusho last time I saw them." - Tyrelbeetle told them.

"I just hope he's okay." - the boy sighed and stared at his medawatch showing the same message.

"Maybe... He'll find Brass." - Erika prayed.

All kept running, trying to reach the medabots that were fighting as soon as possible.

* * *

 

Metabee had finished going down the stairs and walked by a dark narrow corridor. There were several large pipes in the walls, they seemed to have been left unattended to for a long time. Water drops could be heard echoing through the corridor's length. The medabot reached a door at the end and opened it. He found himself in front of an advanced elevator, and it was still functional! But how? Hadn't he cut the power a while ago? He didn't bother trying to understand that, he had to keep looking for Brass.

He stepped inside and pressed the button that showed an arrow pointing downwards. The doors closed and the elevator went down really fast. When it seemed that the elevator would crash on the ground, it stopped. Metabee got out of it a bit dizzy, using the walls as support. He noticed a warning flashing in his visor: Radiation Hazard.

"Huh?" - he looked around - "Woah..." - if he had a mouth, it would be wide open at that moment - "What is this place?"

The place looked like a kind of laboratory. The large room had one huge generator in the far end, several shelves with test-tubes and desks filled with papers and annotation blocks. The ground was mostly made of concrete, but the part of the floor that met the walls was made of grids, and the glowing radioactive liquid could be seen through them. One big piece of paper caught the medabot's attention: it seemed to be a blueprint of a kind of armored suit.

He walked past the last shelves and the generator, then found stairs with few steps. He went downstairs once more and saw three doors: one in front of him, another by his right that was slightly open and another by his left that had a sign saying it led to emergency stairs. He poked his head through the open door to take a look at the room. It was small and only had a wardrobe and a desk. He then tried to push and pull the door to the emergency stairs, after all, he thought he should use those stairs to get out. But the door was locked. He finally looked at the other door: that had to be the one he had been looking for.

He placed his hand on the doorknob, then paused for a moment. That scary image of a wrecked Brass reaching out for him flashed in his mind. He blinked and shook his head. He couldn't wimp out now! He turned the pummel and slowly opened the door.


	6. How to Save a Life

Light filled part of the room as the door opened. Metabee squinted his eyes, trying to see something. He observed the shelves, the wooden boxes, the water dripping from the ceiling, the webs on the walls. The place was really messy. He could barely see anything, so he had to give it a shot.

"Brass! Can you hear me?" - he shouted just a bit louder than a whisper as he cautiously went further inside.

"I'm... Over here." - her soft voice said though it was modified as if she didn't have much power left.

If Metabee had an actual heart, it would be beating really fast right now. He was so worried. Even though he didn't know much about her situation, her voice filled him with some relief. He had found her, at last. He ran quickly to one of the dark corners and kneeled beside Brass. He noticed she was curling, and as he saw the scratches on her head and her face, he figured she was doing it to hide her injuries from him.

"How bad is it?" - he frowned, concern was present in his voice. At the same how he scolded himself for asking that, since he wasn't sure if he wanted to know about that, he knew he needed to learn about her situation. She lowered her head.

"I'm not sure." - her voice sounded more and more as if she were going out of juice.

That wasn't a good sign. Suddenly, her head started to tremble a bit due to the lack of power, startling him. But then it stopped and she seemed to be stable again.

"Sorry." - Brass apologized.

The male medabot just shook his head frowning even more. Sorry... He was the one that should be sorry, not her.

"It's okay, I'll get you out of here." - Metabee replied then reached out his right arm for her, but she moved away from his grip's range.

He leaned his body forward trying to grasp her right arm she was hiding. His torso reflected the light coming from the door, sending it in front of him. He used his left hand to shield his eyes from the hard light's reflection coming from his chest. When he was finally being able to see her properly, he froze: he couldn't believe in his eyes.

Even though she turned around a bit, making her body face the wall and hide her injuries, his eyes "took a picture" of her condition and saved it in his mind. She was in really bad shape. Her Patteri Vulcan was no more, and one of her legs also only had the tinpet part left. Her eyes didn't shine: she was blind. The ribbon on her head was completely wrecked, but it was obviously functioning, though he had no idea how. There were scratches all over her body and there seemed to be some black liquid coming from the left side of her waist, an injury she was hiding with her right hand.

What has he done? He had allowed this to happen. How could he? If he hadn't been so selfish and made her company...

"Don't worry about me. I-I can get fixed." - he heard her say, but he remained frozen.

...She wouldn't be there like that. It was all his fault. Oh... How could he ever be able to guess?! He couldn't... He just couldn't.

"There's not much time, the power from my medal is almost gone." - she warned, then reached her left arm out and rested her hand on his right arm.

He saw her movement but didn't feel her touch. He could barely listen to what she was saying. He only listened to his conscience scolding him for everything.

"Metabee... If I don't make it..." - her head pointed downwards - "Just... Just keep going and get out. Don't stay here... This person that brought me to this place... He means business."

Get out...? Without her? Oh, no... This was something he was NOT going to do. He had sworn he would bring her back to her medafighter, and he was going to keep that promise he made to none other than himself. He snapped out of his frozen state and grabbed her hand.

"No way! I'm not leaving you here." - he said in a serious tone and stared deeply at her, even though he knew she couldn't see it - "I promise I'll take you to Erika. She, Ikki and the guys are coming."

Metabee was brave... No matter what were the odds, he was ready to beat them all. He would get Brass out of there, and she was glad he had come to rescue her. However, she hoped that his bravery wouldn't lead him to his doom. She wouldn't be able to accept that she was the cause of his bad fate.

Something came to their minds: they had teamed up sometimes and won against several opponents. One particular time came as a flashback.

_A lot of smoke came out of Metabee's left harm, his visor was cracked and his vision was working at 20%, so he could barely see the ninja medabots. While Ikki and Erika screamed desperately, he and Brass thought of a plan._

_He lifted his arm and allowed her to aim with it. His arm and her eyes, his gun and her vision, his mighty firepower and her superior accuracy: those were two of the three things they needed to defeat the most powerful attack of the ninjas. The third one was..._

...Trust. They trusted each other deeply in the battle, enough for him to lend his arm to her and for her to lend her eyes to him at a crucial moment. Perfect teamwork. They were great partners back there, and they would be great partners now too. They had to try to escape quickly. Sigh... Were it so easy...

* * *

 

Four medabots surrounded the man, all ready to attack, but they knew they couldn't strike at the same time. Tyrelbeetle appeared in his action mode, coming from the lower floor. He medachanged into normal mode and entered a fighting stance. Now they had gotten the criminal!

"Five on one, pal. You've been caught." - Arc-Dash mocked.

"Surrender and we'll go easy on you." - Tyrelbeetle taunted as well.

The man let out a very brief laugh. Wasn't that ironic?

"I'm sorry, gentlemen... And lady." - he stared at Blakbeetle quickly - "But I won't be able to stay for the party." - he slowly gestured with his arms - "I have important business to attend to." - he gave a command to his armor.

His left hand started glowing and Blakbeetle's missile launcher too. Suddenly, her missiles fired and hit the ground, creating a thick cloud of smoke.

"What? He can activate medabot's abilities?" - Roks was surprised.

As the smoke disappeared, they noticed the man wasn't surrounded by them anymore.

"Where is he?" - the black kilobot asked while looking around.

"Above us!" - Rokusho alerted.

They looked upwards and saw the man hiding in the ceiling, using the wall as a support.

"Oh, don't worry, you can start the party without me." - he threw a small ball to the floor in the middle of them.

At first, nothing happened. Then, all of a sudden, the ball produced a lot of energy, creating a magnetic field. Arc-Dash and Tyrelbeetle were instantly affected, their bodies attracted each other's and they got stuck back-to-back. Their combined mass was enough to attract the closest medabot to them: and that was Rokusho.

He was pulled and got stuck too. As he threw his weight forward, trying to free himself, he just pulled them along, causing the three to fall into a pile with him in the bottom and the other two on top of him.

Blakbeetle and Roks tried to get away from the field, but the man jumped to the ground and quickly pushed the black KBT-type against the KWG-type, then ran down the stairs. When the female kilobot collided with the male medabot, the impact sent both flying. As they reached the window, they got stuck in the metallic border. The two lifted their heads, realizing they were stuck together facing each other, then blushed a bit... That was awkward.

"Ahem..." - Arc-Dash cleared his throat, drawing their attention - "Why don't you... You know... Get a room?" - he teased making both sweatdrop.

He knew the situation was bad, but they couldn't do anything in that condition until their medafighters arrived, so joking a bit to lighten the mood wasn't the worst idea ever. Tyrelbeetle tried to hold his giggles. That was a good one, Arc-Dash! Roks shot a death stare at his KWG partner. Incredibly enough, he seemed to be really bothered by that. Blakbeetle wasn't pleased either.

"Says the one in the middle of a threesome." - she replied mockingly.

Ouch. The red and the blue medabots' eyes widened and they sweat dropped a lot. She was good... For the first time, Roks actually smiled! It looked more like an evil grin, though: he enjoyed that joke. Rokusho just faced the ground ashamed. How did he get into that mess? And he was paying the price for a joke he didn't even tell! Teenagers nowadays...

* * *

 

Metabee helped Brass up. He tried to carry her on his back, but she only had one arm functioning, so she wouldn't be able to hold onto him properly. She said she could still walk, even though she couldn't move her left leg at all. He put her arm on his shoulders and held her by her waist so he could serve as a support as she took one step with one leg and dragged the other along.

They were halfway from the door when Brass suddenly stopped functioning for a second. Metabee noticed that and held her firmly so she wouldn't hit her head on the ground. She soon recovered.

"You okay?" - he asked.

"I'm fine. It was just a power loss." - she replied then started moving her leg to take one more step forward.

"Wait, don't move." - he kneeled and helped her to sit - "Save your energy. I'll take a look outside to see if we can go now."

"But, Metabee..." - she paid attention to her scanning as he ran to the door and poked his head out, then came back - "The more we wait, the less juice I'll have left."

"You're right... Also, the path is clear now, but we don't know how long will it stay like that. The only way is to carry you. Though I gotta do it another way." - he crouched and stretched his arms a bit towards her, one going behind her back and the other one below her knees - "Ah... May I?" - he asked since he didn't want to startle her.

When she nodded, he lifted her and carried her in bridal style. He sprinted to the door, then looked at the emergency doors and remembered they were locked. He placed her in a sitting position next to him and started charging at the doors, trying to break them open. A few tries later and he managed to gain the access to the emergency stairs. He was about to pick Brass up again when a voice talked.

"At last, we've met in person again." - the man stood at the entrance of the laboratory, right outside the elevator.

"So it was you that did this to Brass!" - Metabee clenched his fists.

"She left me no other choice! I had to end this!" - he said harshly - "She wouldn't take me to you, so I made her bring you to me."

"That's no excuse! Whatever is this business you're talking about, it was with me! Leave her out of this!" - the KBT-type yelled at him while walking forward angrily - "You wanted me to be here, so here I am!"

"Yes. And nothing will deny your fate now." - he started approaching the medabot as well, removing his blazer in the process, revealing his armor - "It's time for justice!"

The man charged, the plates of his armor moving to his hands, he swung his fists and brought them down trying to crush the yellow mechanical being. Metabee dodged just in time. The ground where he was standing on cracked with the punch's impact. The man moved his arms from the floor and started swinging them several times while chasing the medabot. The KBT-type kept avoiding the attacks, for they were a bit slow, then when the fists collided with the ground again, he took the opportunity to shoot.

The man tumbled to the side, evading the shot. The bullet ricocheted on the ground, then once more on the wall and finally ended its path penetrating another wall right beside the generator. Metabee's eyes widened. That was close!

"Oh, I almost forgot to warn." - the man mocked - "If you hit that generator, this place will blow sky high. And you won't want to kill us along with your friends." - he got up as the medabot glared at him - "Though I don't have a problem with that, as long as I get to finish you off first!"

He assaulted again, this time with the plates of his armor moving to protect the body and allow him to move his arms faster. Metabee had a hard time trying to dodge the quick attacks. The man managed to land a powerful blow that sent the KBT-type flying to a wall, then struck him one more time, making him break through the wall and open a big hole.

* * *

 

Several steps were heard climbing the stairs. The kids had all arrived on the upper floor and found their medabots in those compromising positions.

"What happened here?" - Ikki was confused.

"Are you okay?" - Honey approached slightly.

"Don't!" - Rokusho, Arc-Dash, and Tyrelbeetle said in unison.

But it was too late: the magnetic field affected the HNY-type and made her be pulled easily by the pile of three medabots since she was a floating one. She landed on top of them, adding weight to the pile and squeezing Rokusho even more.

"Oh, no." - Erika said.

"Did that man do this to all of you by himself?" - Zuru asked. The medabots nodded slowly and frowned.

"Oh, there you are." - Ginkai appeared with Miss Nae right behind him, then he saw the Phantom Renegade - "Huh? Who's this weirdo?" - as the masked man glared at him, he looked at the mess of medabots - "What's going on here?"

"The medabots are stuck. That device is creating a magnetic field." - Kam pointed to the ball in the middle of them.

"We need to take it away from them." - Miss Nae told the kids.

Ikki walked to the device and tried to pick it up, but it was deeply attached to the ground.

"It won't budge!" - he pulled with as much strength as he could.

"Pfft, weak." - Arc-Dash's medafighter said - "Step aside, let me do it."

He pulled with all his might, but he didn't manage to lift it, not even an inch. He switched positions a few times, trying to pull it from other angles. Nothing. He kicked it hard, trying to at least move it to the side, but all he earned was a sore foot. He grabbed it and started jumping on the other foot, trying to ease the massive pain, while everyone sweatdropped. Suddenly, they heard a very loud noise almost like an explosion coming from below them. The building shook a bit.

"Metabee!" - Ikki was worried, that man was probably after him right now.

"Brass must be there too!" - Erika knew that was the only place they hadn't looked yet, she hoped her medabot was alright.

"You two come with me." - the Phantom Renegade told them - "The rest of you try to figure out a way of freeing your medabots."

The masked man and the two kids sprinted downstairs and went through the only path left. Miss Nae, Kam, and Zuru kneeled down around the ball and examined it.

"I'll have to open it and deactivate it manually. It'll take a few minutes." - she said while picking a tool from her uniform and starting to work on the device. The others observed silently and took the moment to wish their friends luck.

* * *

 

Metabee opened his eyes and slowly lifted his head. He was a bit dizzy. He checked himself: his left arm had ceased functioning. Oww... That guy hit harder than Belzelga! He was lucky that the man wasn't really precise and he was a human, so he was going to get tired eventually. But would he be able to preserve his integrity long enough?

He got up from the rubble and quickly looked around: no sign of the man. He walked towards the lab and stood at the exit of the hole. Where was that guy? He sensed something behind him. He turned around and saw the man ready to strike. He jumped back and avoided the blow.

When he aimed his gun at him, he noticed something different: his visor was showing some calculated routes for his bullets when they ricochet on walls and on the ground. But... He couldn't do that. So who...? Metabee looked to the side and saw the SLR-type sitting next to the battlefield, her bow was glowing slightly. It was her! She was using her scanners to raise his accuracy!

"Don't! You'll spend all your juice!" - Metabee whispered.

"It doesn't matter. If I'm able to help you, I'll do it." - Brass told him.

She was awesome... He remembered all the times she had been there to help. When he couldn't move the giant Metabee by himself, she offered her help before anyone else did. When Unitrix and Exor wanted to attack him, she also wanted to give him a hand, even when Erika told her she had no reason to help. She even offered her own body to help Oceana find her medafighter!

And now, even in that condition, she still looked out for him. She was the most amazing partner he could ask for. She was a living memory of that medabot from the past, whose mere presence was enough to give him the confidence to lead an army to a war. He couldn't let her down. He was going to make her proud.

The man got up and dashed in his direction. The yellow medabot aimed towards the ceiling and shot. The man blinked. What was he up to? The shot ricocheted twice then hit him right on his back. He felt some pain from the impact. That didn't stop him, though.

He swung his left leg upwards, his plates moving to his leg during the attack. Metabee ducked then fired another shot at the wall. It ricocheted again and hit the man's unprotected right shoulder. The pain caused him to rage, then he tried one roundhouse kick with his right leg. The blow hit the medabot, making his head spin once and knocking him to the ground.

"So she's helping you." - he figured.

The KBT-type got up and moved in front of the female medabot protectively. No way he was going to let that guy lay one hand on her!

"Don't be silly." - the man said - "I'm not after her at all. And not even her little help can save you from me."

The armored man moved so quickly that he couldn't be seen. Brass tried to send the data from her scanners to Metabee, but the man acted faster. He appeared behind the yellow medabot and punched him. The mechanical being stumbled forward, then turned around. The man's hand started glowing a bit and Metabee's missile launchers did the same.

Suddenly the missiles fired and collided with each other right in front of the medabot, sending him rolling on the ground across the lab. He hit his back hard against the wall. His legs' color became darker: their function had ceased.

"Metabee!" - a voice shouted.

The yellow medabot looked upwards and saw the elevator coming down with Ikki, Erika, and the Phantom Renegade. The boy was the one that had shouted. Before they could exit the elevator, the man's hand glowed again and locked the door, leaving the three stuck inside. Ikki and the masked man tried to break the door open, with no success.

"Open the door now!" - the Phantom Renegade demanded.

"I can't allow anyone else to interfere!" - the man said - "This is my fight against him! You all have nothing to do with it!"

"Brass!" - the girl saw her injured medabot - "You liar! You involved her!"

"Her injuries were her own fault. She asked for them. And even though she's helping him right now, I'm not attacking her." - he told them, making Erika glare at him - "I'll give her back to you after I'm done with him."

"Why?! What did Metabee do to you?!" - Ikki asked - "We have never seen you before!"

"You might not know who I am, but your medabot caused a lot of trouble to many people in the past. I was a victim of his atrocities."

"What? Metabee wouldn't hurt anyone! What are you talking about?" - the boy was confused.

"It happened 12 years ago..." - the man lowered his head.

* * *

 

_The finals were taking place at the WRC. The two medabots were fighting furiously. A kid was controlling a KBT-type that was very damaged but didn't give up. Suddenly, the yellow medabot started glowing: he was summoning the Medaforce._

_But before he could unleash his attack, he froze, along with all the other medabots of the world. The Ten Days of Darkness had started. By the end of the ninth day, the medabots had managed to take over most of the city. They rioted, destroying everything and killing everyone without mercy._

_The yellow medabot that started it all was walking by a street that was mostly in ruins. He saw a man running and entering a house. The man was holding some towels and bandages, he met with a woman and a little boy._

_"Here." - the man poured some water from a can on one of the towels and handed it to the woman._

_"Thank you." - the woman started cleaning the kid's arm, while the little boy cried in pain - "Easy, sweetie. I'll take care of this bump." - she bandaged him._

_"I think I'm hearing something. I'll check on the door again." - the man said._

_"Please, be careful." - the woman kissed him._

_He was going to promise he'd be fine, but he himself didn't know if he'd be able to keep it. He just stared at her and nodded, then went downstairs. Many minutes have passed, and the man hadn't returned. His wife was starting to worry. She decided to take a look to see if he was okay. She saw him standing by the door._

_"What's wrong?" - she asked._

_"Stay back!" - he warned her._

_Suddenly, several bullets passed through the door and hit the man. Blood spilled from his wounds as he fell lifeless to the ground. The woman screamed and cried. She ran upstairs and picked her son up._

_"Mom? Where's dad?" - the boy was scared upon seeing his mother crying._

_"Sweetie, we need to hide. Dad won't come with us." - she hugged him tightly._

_As she walked carrying the kid, a shot ricocheted on the wall and hit her leg, making her fall. She couldn't get up anymore. Steps could be heard going upstairs._

_"Mommy!" - the boy cried._

_"Sweetie, run! Protect yourself!" - the woman shouted as she looked behind her and saw the shadow of a medabot - "Run now!"_

_The medabot had reached the upper floor. He was glowing. He lifted his arms then unleashed the Medaforce against the defenseless woman. The boy watched in horror as the intense energy set his mother on fire and burned her until there was nothing but ashes left._

_He got up and ran across the room, then the ground cracked and the kid fell to the lower floor. He lifted his head slowly as the dust faded. His eyes widened when he saw his father covered in blood with several shots open on his chest._

_He curled in a ball and cried. He was all alone in the world now. The house was in flames. The medabot appeared and walked towards him. The boy just stared at him. He had nowhere to run. The mechanical being aimed the gun at him. A gunshot noise echoed by the empty place as light filled everything._

* * *

 

"This medabot ruined my life completely! Look at what he did to me!" - he removed his cap, revealing his face.

It was covered by scars and burns, most of its left side was made of metal. He didn't have his left ear and his left eye. The latter was replaced by a red bionic eye.

"I starved for many years, for I was left alone! I couldn't sleep, I only saw him killing all my family in my dreams! And his eyes, those damn menacing eyes!" - he clenched his shaking fists angrily - "Chasing me forever. Bringing that nightmare back to me every single day!" - he looked at Metabee in the eyes - "But now all I see is fear... Pathetic!"

Ikki couldn't believe in it. It couldn't be true! He placed his hands on the glass of the door and looked at his medabot.

"Nobody knows Metabee as much as I do. I'm sure he didn't do anything like that! You must be mistaking him with someone else!" - the boy said.

"Do you think I'm an idiot?! Do you think I'd fool myself?!" - the man yelled - "It was hard to see that night. But I would never forget the look on his face. I saw many medabots very similar in appearance, like this Kantaroth. But I quickly noticed it wasn't him. When I saw yours, I immediately recognized the stare from that fateful day." - he slowly walked towards the KBT-type.

"Please... You have to do something!" - Erika grabbed the Phantom Renegade by his shirt and shook him slightly, staring at him deeply.

He just stood there. What did she expect him to do?! He was just as helpless as she was! He started to think about what the man had told them, though. There was something wrong. That was an old KBT-type... To be that strong and to be able to use the Medaforce, it had to be a rare medal... Oh, no... He was being led to a bad conclusion. That couldn't be...

"He's just a disgrace, he's not even pitiful!" - the man shouted harshly - "He lost to me! He lacks the passion to fight and yet claims to be the best out there?!" - he turned to the medabot - "I am fighting for my family! What are you fighting for? Your survival?"

Silence. The yellow medabot didn't move. He was very damaged. Only one arm and his torso were functional. He wasn't going to get away from there.

"You don't have an actually good reason to fight? Well, then it's time to cleanse your kind from this world." - the man prepared to land a blow on him.

"No..." - Metabee said very weakly - "Survival has nothing to do with it." - he started to glow, the power of the rare medal was flowing inside him - "There are things I value more than my own integrity!" - he got up slowly - "I am fighting for my friends!"

He was glowing very brightly, preparing to launch his most powerful attack. The man noticed what was happening and quickly commanded his armor to work on a protection. Now he was going to see if his work was successful. Metabee lifted his arms, the energy was burning in his hands.

"Medaforce!" - he unleashed his attack.

The huge green beam hit the man's fists. The energy was really powerful. The medabot noticed the beam would also hit Brass, so he changed its course a bit. The change, of course, made the beam push the man against a wall across from the one where the SLR-type was. The man felt the plates heating, but other than that, the attack still didn't reach him. Metabee took a few steps forward and increased the potency of the beam.

The man's armor started glowing a bit with the same green color of the beam. Suddenly, the energy's intensity caused an explosion. After the smoke faded, they saw the man was still standing, not one single scratch on his skin. The three inside the elevator were shocked. Metabee just fell on his knees, weak.

"I have studied your special power for years." - his suit stopped glowing - "And after several tries, I came up with a way to counter it."

He slowly walked towards the fallen medabot. Brass was worried, her scanners were showing her that Metabee was in danger. She had to do something, or that man was going to destroy him! She noticed the way some objects were placed in the room. She crawled on the ground and reached out for what seemed to be a shelf. That was it! She started climbing it and had a hard time doing that. When she reached the top, she waited for the right instant.

"I've been preparing for this moment." - the man stood in front of the yellow medabot and readied his fist, moving all the plates of his armor to create a massive glove - "If that was all you got, then I shall finish you now." - his suit's interface projected the route for the blow, making it a lot easier for the man to move the heavy fist.

He brought his arm behind him and prepared to strike. Ikki was beating on the glass of the elevator's door desperately, calling out for his medabot. The man started to swing his arm. At that very second, using all the energy she had left, Brass threw herself between the man and the KBT-type. The next seconds seemed to be happening in slow motion.

Metabee watched in horror as the metallic fist collided with the Sailor-Multi and a loud crack echoed through the lab. Everyone's eyes widened. Her body couldn't take the blow: it was completely broken apart. Several fragments of her body flew around. Her upper half landed by the KBT-type's left and her legs landed by his right, her functioning limbs trembled.

Erika screamed and cried uncontrollably, Ikki hugged her tightly, some tears coming down his face, he knew her pain. The Phantom Renegade yelled at the man for his cruelty. The latter just stood there shocked. He couldn't believe he had done that... That wasn't what he had wanted. He now had a debt he would never repay.

As for Metabee, several images from the past and present flashed in his head really quickly. When he came to his senses, he crawled on the ground towards Brass' upper body. He held her right hand, even though she obviously couldn't feel his touch. He kept crawling until his head was beside hers. He approached to look at her face. He barely had the energy to lift his head, so he ended up resting his forehead on top of hers.

The closeness didn't bother him anymore. He looked briefly at the scratches on her face, then stared at her eyes. It almost seemed as if life had left them.

"Me... Metabee...?" - her weak voice said.

"I'm here, Brass." - he squeezed her hand a bit - "You'll be okay. I promise."

"Metabee... Can you please..." - her voice failed at the end.

"Sure, Brass, anything for you. What's it?" - he was really worried.

"...Tell me if Erika received my gift."

"Yes, she did." - he looked at the girl, then stared back at Brass - "She's with the package right now." - his eyes were wet, he couldn't believe that was happening - "And in a few hours you two will take a beautiful picture together in your party." - he tried to think positive.

Her eyes moved slightly, showing she was smiling. She started shaking a bit. She didn't have much time left. She had to be fixed as soon as possible. He had to deal with that man, though. But he could barely move. He felt so helpless. He was losing her... It was all his fault... What had he done?

_Suddenly he found himself sitting on the grass in his old KBT armor. It was at night. Many stars illuminated the sky. A shooting star appeared. Then he saw the movement of a hand pointing towards it excitedly: her hand._

_Both watched as the sky was filled with shooting stars. It was a beautiful view. She rested her head on his shoulder. He felt he was starting to blush and tried to act cool, but he ended up resting his head on hers anyways. A warm feeling filled his medal._

_But she started to fade. Soon she was gone and he was all alone. He felt his empty world crumbling. No, just no... He couldn't allow it. He simply couldn't let that happen. He had lost her once. He wasn't going to lose her again now._

The vision faded. Metabee started glowing, but this time, it was a white glow. His wounds were completely repaired as his armor's color changed: the yellow was replaced by gold, the white, black and gray, by different tones of silver, the red was bright as a ruby and the green, like emeralds. His eyes were white and shined more than ever.

"What is that power? It... It's not the Medaforce..." - the Phantom Renegade said, while Ikki and Erika watched with their eyes wide open.

Miss Nae, the rest of the kids and their medabots arrived through the emergency stairs and stood there as astonished as the other three. Rokusho, Roks, and Arc-Dash were the most impressed ones: they had never seen that kind of power before!

The KBT-type got up, carrying the Sailor-Multi's upper body with one arm, almost hugging it. He aimed his right arm at the man and fired a really large white beam. The man used his armor to protect himself, but the virtual interface didn't identify the energy, so the armor fried and totally burned to ashes, leaving him vulnerable. After the attack, the man just laid on the ground unable to move. As Metabee walked to Brass' lower body and picked it up, the man lifted his head weakly.

"Then that's how it ends... You killed my family... And now you get to finish me, preventing me from avenging them." - he coughed a bit - "The world is so unfair."

"Maybe it might be." - the masked man said - "But no, don't think you didn't get revenge for what happened to your family." - he drew the man's attention - "After hearing your story, I can say it wasn't Metabee who did that to you."

Everyone but the glowing medabot looked at the Phantom Renegade. The latter had accepted the conclusion he had thought of earlier as the truth.

"What? What do you mean?" - the man asked weakly.

"I was there competing at the WRC during the events of the Ten Days of Darkness. It was Arcbeetle that started it all. And..." - he reached for his mask and removed it, revealing his real identity - "...I was his medafighter."

Everyone was surprised: Henry was the Phantom Renegade all along! Were this another situation, Erika would have made an interview with him.

"Arcbeetle? But... That can't be." - the man was confused.

"At the time, he was wearing an armor like Metabee's old one. And I myself would call him Metabee." - Henry told him - "When the armor wasn't being produced anymore, many said it was because there were newer models, but it wasn't true. That armor had been discontinued way before the other ones from that time. The real reason was that everyone thought I had orchestrated the event by modifying the armor. Thinking anyone could do the same as "I did", they called it a cursed armor."

"But that makes no sense! And how come we never heard of that?" - Ikki asked.

"Have you ever heard of the Ten Days of Darkness before you learned about the rare medals? The governments from all over the world decided to cover up all the events from that time. Otherwise, nobody would buy medabots because they'd fear another revolution. Also, not many knew about the secrets of the rare medals, that's why I was blamed and few knew it was actually my intervention that stopped the riots."

The boy thought for a moment and realized it all truly made sense. That was terrible... Henry acted as a hero, but people saw him as the villain, and instead of receiving credit for his good deeds, he was the one they chose to blame. Yes, the world was really full of injustice.

"What did you mean when you said my family had been avenged?" - the man asked.

"To end those dark times, I looked for Arcbeetle..." - Henry started.

* * *

 

_The city was almost completely destroyed. It had been ten days since the medabots started rioting. A boy ran by the rubble, looking desperately for his medabot. He knew his friend had a rare medal and he had accepted that the only way to end that nightmare, was to destroy it. After several minutes, the kid finally found his medabot punching a wall very hard until it broke._

_"Metabee!" - the Henry called for him._

_The mechanical being slowly turned around. Suddenly he charged at the kid and knocked him to the ground. Then fired his missiles, but the boy managed to escape in the last second, though he still suffered some damage from the explosion._

_Blood was coming down Henry's face, starting at his forehead. He hid in the fog caused by the smoke. When he got a glimpse of his medabot, he ran and kicked him on his head. The KBT-type rolled a few feet on the ground. The boy jumped and landed on top of him, then started punching his face._

_The medabot became enraged and collided his fist very hard against his medafighter's face, then tumbled to the side, got on top of the boy and lunged at him. The kid stopped his hands with his own, and both kept pushing on each other in a struggle of power. Henry knew that he'd not outmatch the medabot, though._

_Suddenly, several red eyes shined in the fog: the other medabots were coming to kill him! The boy looked to the side and saw a pointy rock that gave him an idea. It was now or never. With all his strength, he gave a headbutt on his medabot that stunned him briefly, then knocked him to the side._

_When the medabot was facing the ground, the kid quickly grabbed the rock and cried as he stabbed his friend's back violently until his function ceased. All the medabots stopped and came to their normal selves._

* * *

 

"I made the necessary sacrifice: I destroyed his medal. The Ten Days of Darkness had ended at last." - Henry finished - "Later I managed to repair it, but his personality and his memories were gone forever." - he stared at his mask in his hand, realizing that what had happened to his friend wasn't way too different from what he had to do to himself.

"Henry..." - Ikki and Erika said in unison, feeling compassion towards the young man.

"You had your revenge, even though it wasn't by your own hands." - he lowered his head and painfully continued - "Arcbeetle already paid the price for all the bad things he had done, even when it wasn't really his fault."

Tears came down from the man's right eye. He had been planning his vengeance for so many years, and now he was being told that he was working his anger off on someone that had nothing to do with it. And to make things worse, an innocent female medabot also paid a price that was really high, sacrificing herself to save her friend's integrity. Roks sprinted across the lab and unlocked the elevator's door.

"Guess it's too late to apologize..." - the man muttered.

"It's never too late to regret, though. And to make better choices." - Miss Nae said.

"Then take this..." - he handed her some keys and a controller - "Feel free to use the power of this nuclear plant and the tools I have inside my locker to patch her up."

The mechanic nodded and went to get the tools.

"This won't make me forgive you for what you did." - Erika said - "But at least you're helping me to get her fixed."

The man acknowledged that she was right and didn't beg for her pardon. He respected her. Henry passed by her and squeezed her shoulder, then looked at the man.

"You won't escape the law, though." - he told him - "You'll have to answer for your crime."

"I am aware of it. And I'll accept the punishment." - he collapsed for he was exhausted.

The two kids and Henry slowly approached the KBT-type. Metabee was staring at Brass in his arms, his head was down and he shook it. He was feeling terribly bad for not being able to protect her properly.

"Repairing her won't bring her back..." - he muttered.

He knew the damage was really severe and that it might be beyond repair. He kept asking himself what he had done wrong. He was devastated for losing her like that. Grieving her was such a bitter feeling. He'd have stayed longer watching those shooting stars with her. Had he known how to keep her safe...

Suddenly, he felt her head move very slightly. She was still there! There was still a chance! They'd just have to hurry!

"Head to Miss Nae's van, now!" - he warned.

Everyone ran to the emergency stairs and started climbing. Metabee knew it would take way too long. What were they doing?!

"No, don't go through there!" - he shouted - "Come this way!" - he launched his missiles on the opposite wall, opening a huge tunnel that led straight to the garage, then sprinted through it.

The others exchanged worried glances and quickly followed. Erika was the only one that caught up with the glowing medabot carrying her friend, she cried all the time. Even though Brass barely had awareness of what was happening, she could feel the KBT-type medabot was really agitated and somehow she could sense her medafighter's sadness. ' _Erika, Metabee..._ ' She longed for them until she became totally unconscious.

' _Stay with me, Brass._ ' Metabee thought. ' _We're almost there, just hang on._ '

They arrived at the van in a few minutes, and he placed the Sailor-Multi carefully in the workbench. Miss Nae brought some tools and a cable that she attached to her van. She tried to open the SLR-type's hatch on her back, but it was stuck.

"I'll have to cut through it." - she said and started looking for an electric circular saw.

"I guess there's no way to fix her body, then..." - Erika lowered her head.

"Her body is way too damaged." - the woman said - "But... I'll give you the SLR-2 parts for free if you want them."

The girl thought for a moment. Maybe it was time for an upgrade.

"I do. Thank you, Miss Nae." - she accepted the offer.

At least she'd have Brass back, and who knows, maybe the new parts were cool. Miss Nae found her tool and placed it on Brass' hatch. She put on a pair of goggles since she was going to cut metal.

"You guys better stay back. The sparks can hurt." - she said, and when everyone was in a safe distance, she proceeded to cut.

In two minutes she had managed to cut a circle around of where the medal should be located. She used a magnet to pull the circular piece of metal and take a look at the medal. Upon seeing it, she gasped. It was a lot worse than she had imagined.

"What is it?" - Erika was worried, she and the others got closer to see what was wrong.

Their eyes widened as they all gasped as well. The girl felt her eyes tearing up. Could it get any worse? The answer was: yes, it could. Brass' medal was broken in three parts! The body could be wrecked, if the medal was intact, she would be fine. But no, her medal... Her soul had to suffer...

"Miss Nae..." - Ikki said while hugging the sobbing girl - "Will you be able to fix her?"

"Fixing the medal physically isn't a problem. But I can't tell what kind of trauma it'd cause to her until we use her medal again." - she told him - "I'm just afraid it might damage her... Forever." - she was a bit uneasy.

Metabee walked to the workbench and picked the pieces of the medal up carefully with both hands. He didn't make one single false move, he knew he was holding her shattered soul in his hands. After a few seconds holding them, he felt her soul could still be saved, so he offered the pieces to the woman.

"Miss Nae, please, you have to try." - his eyes staring her deeply, begging her to do it.

She stared back at him for a moment. She noticed he was really determined to save the Sailor-Multi. She agreed with him and took the pieces.

"I'll do my best." - she nodded and went to work on the medal.


	7. Epilogue

Over two hours had passed since Miss Nae had started repairing the medal. The cops had arrived and taken the black dressed man with them. But before he left, he humbly went to Erika and handed her an object.

"It was yours. You forgot it down there." - he said as he gave her the golden beetle.

She blinked, then just nodded and watched as he entered the police car. In the end, she realized there was no villain in all of that, only victims. Silent tears rolled from her eyes.

Sometime later, the sun was rising. The kids had accommodated themselves in Kam's car, while the medabots either stood or sat on the ground. After Honey brought some water to Erika a couple of times, the girl finally calmed down. Ikki and the others tried to cheer her up, saying Miss Nae would fix Brass, giving her some hope.

On the other hand, Metabee was really quiet. He just sat on the ground with his arms crossed. He was still in his gold and silver armor, though the white glow wasn't that bright now. Suddenly, his eyes went black. Ikki called out for him, but he couldn't listen anymore: he had something really important to do first.

* * *

 

_The KBT-type found himself in the middle of nowhere, everything was dark. He was laying on the ground with his arm reaching out in front of him. He saw Brass starting to fade in the distance. He clenched his fist with determination, then got up and ran after her._

_Just like the last time he had a dream like this, the more he ran, the farther away she went, but he didn't give up. He kept going and started running faster and faster. He couldn't let her slip away!_

_At a certain point, he collided with what seemed to be glass, shattering it. After passing through it, he saw Brass appearing right in front of him, so he threw himself at her, hugging her tightly and not daring to let go of her. As he did so, the darkness was filled with bright light._

_'I've got you now. And I won't let you go... Ever.' - he said while closing his eyes._

_'Metabee...' - she whispered and felt the embrace, then hugged him back - 'Thank you.'_

_The bright light became more intense and the scene faded as everything turned white._

* * *

 

Metabee woke up from his stasis. His glow was fading, his armor's color was coming back to normal and his green eyes shined again. He looked at Miss Nae's workbench and he noticed there was a fading glow coming from there as well. He wondered if what he had just done worked. He could just hope for it.

"Well, I finished fixing the medal. Now we need to test it in the new body." - the woman said - "I'll work on getting the body ready for use. It'll take just a few minutes."

Soon the body was ready. Ikki, Erika, and Metabee got closer. The girl took the medal from the workbench and placed it on the body's hatch. They waited expectantly. In a few seconds, the eyes lit up: she was functional. But was she still the same?

"Brass?" - Erika asked, but received no answer - "Are you okay?"

Again no answer. She grabbed her medabot's hand and stared deeply at her.

"Do you... Know who you are?" - she was replied with more silence, her eyes started tearing up - "Do you remember me?" - as the medabot was still quiet, she lowered her head, she was almost crying - "Brass..." - she squeezed her best friend's hand.

Metabee and Ikki frowned. It seemed that Brass was gone... Suddenly, they saw the movement of a mechanical hand touching the girl's face and stroking it gently. The three blinked surprised at the gesture.

"Erika... Why are you crying?" - she asked softly while wiping her medafighter's tears out, then smiled sweetly.

"Brass!" - Erika couldn't hold her tears any longer.

She cried a lot while hugging her friend tightly, but carefully as well, since she didn't want to risk damaging her. Her medabot hugged her back just as tightly. They remained like that for a few minutes, then finally let go off each other. They needed that embrace more than ever! Ikki and Metabee smiled. They were happy for them.

"Try to stand up, Brass." - the girl took one step back to give her friend more room to move.

The medabot nodded then started getting down from the workbench, but she lost her balance in the process and fell on top of Metabee that was right beside her. Well, it wasn't that awkward, since her body was laying across his. She slowly lifted her back a little, then smiled shyly and sweat dropped a bit, for she was clumsy, while he stared at her.

"Easy there." - he told her - "We don't want you to get hurt."

She nodded and both got up. She briefly stared at her hands and noticed they were different. She also noted her visor was different as well.

"Hm... What do I look like?" - she asked sheepishly, realizing she was in a new body.

Metabee blinked, then smiled.

"Well, see for yourself." - he stepped to the side as Miss Nae brought a large mirror.

Brass stared at herself through the mirror in awe. She had different colors: her cream color, pink, blue and bluish tinpet were replaced by actual white, reddish rose, dark blue and silver tinpet, respectively. Her arms' parts under the elbows and legs' parts under the knees were thinner and the latter were slightly longer, her guns were bigger, her shoulders were smaller, her skirt was shorter, her torso was more curved, her head was rounder, the bow on its back was a bit smaller and she was made of way lighter materials to give her faster movements, though they were very resistant nonetheless.

She checked her status. Her left arm had much more firepower and range, though it had significantly decreased fire rate: so it worked like a sniper rifle. Her right arm had more firepower and faster fire rate: it was an upgraded sub-machinegun. Her targeting system was much more precise than her previous one. She used the scope from her bow and noticed it was more accurate and could zoom in longer distances as well. Her legs had twice the propulsion they had before, that meant she could run faster and had stronger kicks.

She graciously turned around a few times, giggling a bit while checking herself out, seeming pretty satisfied with her new armor. She was no longer the Sailor-Multi, she was now the Last Sailor. Metabee couldn't move his eyes away from her. He was still taking in that a few moments ago she was completely wrecked and lifeless, and right now she was just fine and happy. He couldn't help but smile.

"You look beautiful." - he said.

"Thank you..." - she was going to finish her phrase when she looked at him and blinked, blushing a bit.

His stare and the look on his face weren't expected by her. He tilted his head slightly, not understanding her gesture. He realized something was going on with him, so he looked at himself in the mirror. Upon looking at his face, his eyes widened a bit. Oh, not that again! Damn it! What's wrong with him? He lowered his head sweat dropping ashamed, as giggles from some of the others were heard. In a few seconds, they just complimented Brass' new armor as well.

* * *

 

After Miss Nae and Kam brought everyone back to the park, Erika took her medabot's hand and walked home with her. They had to finish preparing the party. The others went each one to their houses as well. Soon the time passed and the sun was setting: the party was starting. Besides Ikki, the Screws and the others that helped to rescue Brass, among the guests were: Dr. Aki, Ikki's parents, Zuru's father, Ginkai's sister, Karin, Kouji, Rintaro, Natalie, Zumi, Suzie, Banjo, Tak, Moira, plus all their medabots, and even some friends they from other countries, like Belmont, Victor, Joe and Patra, also with their medabots.

Everyone was talking when Erika hit a glass with a spoon a few times, drawing their attention.

"I want to thank you all for coming." - the girl said - "This day is really special to me and Brass. Not just because it's the 4th anniversary of our friendship. Today something really bad happened before this party." - she started tearing up as well as her medabot, while commotion filled everyone - "After feeling so sad for almost losing you, I realized for real that I'd have nothing if I didn't have you, Brass. Thank you for being the best medabot ever, but most of all, thank you for being my best friend."

Both hugged tightly as everybody applauded. The two went to grab their presents, then came back and stood in front of each other, holding the other's gift. Brass was the one going to talk now.

"Erika, today I also realized that my life would be empty without you. You're the best medafighter I could wish for and I'm honored to be your partner." - she said the words coming from her heart - "Thank you for being there for me and for being like a sister I never had. I look forward to being always your best friend and to making our special bond stronger than ever." - they handed each other their gifts, then hugged tightly again as more applauses were heard.

The girl opened her package and her eyes sparkled in delight as she checked her brand new camera out. Oh, she had wanted one like that for so long! Brass opened hers as well. Her eyes widened and sparkled too. That was the most beautiful object she had ever seen. It somehow looked familiar, though. Suddenly, a memory was triggered.

_She was sitting next to a huge tree wearing her SLR-1 armor. Metabee was sitting beside her in his old armor as well and he was offering her the golden beetle. She took it from his hand and stared at it for a while, then held it dearly against her chest. That was an amazing gift from him!_

_'Thank you so much, Kyuumo!' - she hugged him._

_He hugged her back smiling, he was glad that she liked it. His eyes widened when she rubbed her face against his as if she were giving him a peck on the cheek. They let go off each other as the vision faded._

' _So that used to be me..._ ' Brass thought, realizing who she was in the past. She looked to the side and saw the KBT-type leaning against a tree, rubbing his own face with his hand. Even though she knew she was just a clone, she could tell by his actions that Metabee saw her as the original one. She felt her cheeks becoming warm. She looked back at the golden beetle, knowing it was a memory of her ancient bond with him, but it now had another meaning: a symbol that meant her bond with her medafighter could transcend lives, just like her bond with Metabee did.

The Last Sailor smiled at her medafighter and both looked at Metabee, who gave them two thumbs up and nodded grinning. Suddenly a voice was heard.

"Erika! Brass! Congratulations!" - a girl said.

"Hannah?" - Erika was surprised - "But you said you'd not be able to come."

"I know." - she paused a moment while Oceana floated to her side - "My parents let us join your party. They said we could stay a while, but we have to come back early since we live very far."

"Well, then let's have some fun! Thank you for coming all the way here. It means a lot."

Hannah nodded, as Brass and MAR-type shook their hands and complimented each other's upgrades. Erika brought her new camera along and took several pictures:

Oceana and Orkamar sitting in a huge bowl of water while Belmont and Hannah talked. The little seahorses that accompanied her were jumping on the KIL-type's head and chirping happily, while he sweatdropped a bit and the MAR-type giggled. Belmont was showing that pretty smile of his to the camera. Erika couldn't help but blush a bit when she remembered how he stared at her in the day they first met.

Kantaroth trying to look tough in front of Redrun, in a fail attempt to hint that he was cooler than "him". In the end, he found out that Redrun was actually a female kilobot when she gave him a deadly glare, so he just sweatdropped as Rintaro and Banjo laughed.

Natalie and Octoclam cooking their octopus balls while the Screws ate everything really fast. She got mad at them for eating even the ones she was saving for Ikki and started yelling at them, stating they were rude, as her medabot just stared at her with a blank expression.

Ikki's parents, Dr. Aki, Zuru's father, Henry, Miss Nae, Patra, Joe, and Victor were sitting in the coach in Erika's yard, talking lightly and smiling. Their medabots were getting along pretty well too. All the adults seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Suzie and her two medabots posing as she obliged Fotoshoot to take pictures of her. Zumi just sweatdropped. Suddenly, the girl noticed her and made her take some more pictures with the new camera. She just laughed at how hyper Suzie was.

Tyrelbeetle putting his arms around Rokusho and Roks, pulling them to a group picture: the KWG trio! As the blue medabot smiled, the other two had funny expressions, since Tyrelbeetle's arms were holding them by their necks, strangling them. Zuru giggled behind them in the corner of the picture.

Kam and Blakbeetle sitting beside each other and smiling, as the bunnies Suzie had brought jumped around the KBT-type kilobot and Ginkai's sister tried to grab one of them. Brass and Metabee aiming their guns randomly after Ikki told them to pose as if they were about to team robattle. Erika smiled at how amazing her medabot looked.

Ginkai sweat dropping as Henry, dressed as the Space Medafighter X, stroke a weird pose and Arc-Dash and Arcbeetle imitated him. The Screws posing with their medabots in front of them. Tak, Moira, and Natalie clapping as Komandog and Octoclam street danced in front of them after some music started playing.

Arc-Dash pulling Peppercat to the "dance floor" and acting as if he were dancing the tango with her, while Ginkai laughed. Tyrelbeetle pushing Roks against Blakbeetle, then looking to the side, pretending it wasn't him, as the KBT-type accepted the "invite" to a dance. The blue medabot, Zuru, and Kam giggling in the background.

All the adults dancing with each other. Kouji trying to ask Karin to dance, but instead she danced with Dr. Aki and he ended up dancing with Samantha that forcefully dragged him to the "dance floor". Belmont and Hannah smiling as Honey, Oceana and Orkamar hula danced. Rintaro dancing in synchronism with Kantaroth.

Suzie trying to convince Banjo to dance with her, but he ignored her. Ikki going to check if Miss Nae would dance with him, but finding out that she's already dancing with Henry. She herself and Ikki along with Metabee and Brass dancing together and switching pairings every now and then, some people smiling at the four in the background.

Zumi and Fotoshoot recording Neutranurse trying to make Sumilidon dance ballet while the STG-type sweatdropped. Kouji facepalming and Karin giggling and clapping in the background. Rokusho sitting in a tree, watching everyone.

And, at last, Erika herself and Brass beside each other smiling, the Last Sailor holding the shining golden beetle in her hands carefully. The SLR-type observed the photo with her medafighter. The picture brought a genuine smile to the girl's lips. She'd never forget how important their friendship was. The medabot placed a hand on her shoulder softly: neither would she.

Both looked at each other and nodded smiling, then went quickly inside the house to get a book where they could place the photos. They had to show all those pictures to the guys before the party was over!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Go on to the sequel, Hacked!


End file.
